University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET SALE OF SEEDS.

The street sale of seeds, I am informed, is
smaller than it was thirty, or even twenty years
back. One reason assigned for this falling off
is the superior cheapness of "flowers in pots."
At one time, I was informed, the poorer classes
who were fond of flowers liked to "grow their
own mignonette." I told one of my informants
that I had been assured by a trustworthy man,
that in one day he had sold 600 penny pots of
mignonette: "Not a bit of doubt of it, sir,"
was the answer, "not a doubt about it; I've
heard of more than that sold in a day by a man
who set on three hands to help him; and that's
just where it is. When a poor woman, or poor
man either — but its mostly the women — can
buy a mignonette pot, all blooming and smelling
for 1d., why she won't bother to buy seeds and
set them in a box or a pot and wait for them
to come into full blow. Selling seeds in the
streets can't be done so well now, sir. Any-

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how it ain't done as it was, as I've often heard
old folk say." The reason assigned for this
is that cottages in many parts — such places
as Lisson-grove, Islington, Hoxton, Hackney,
or Stepney — where the inhabitants formerly
cultivated flowers in their little gardens, are
now let out in single apartments, and the
gardens — or yards as they mostly are now —
were used merely to hang clothes in. The
only green thing which remained in some of
these gardens, I was told, was horse-radish, a
root which it is difficult to extirpate: "And
it's just the sort of thing," said one man,
"that poor people hasn't no great call for,
because they, you see, a'n't not overdone with
joints of roast beef, nor rump steaks." In the
suburbs where the small gardens are planted
with flowers, the cultivators rarely buy seeds
of the street-sellers, whose stands are mostly
at a distance.

None of the street seed-vendors confine them-
selves to the sale. One man, whom I saw, told
me that last spring he was penniless, after
sickness, and a nurseryman, whom he knew,
trusted him 5s. worth of seeds, which he con-
tinued to sell, trading in nothing else, for three
or four weeks, until he was able to buy some
flowers in pots. Though the profit is cent. per
cent. on most kinds, 1s. 6d. a day is accounted
"good earnings, on seeds." On wet days there
is no sale, and, indeed, the seeds cannot be ex-
posed in the streets. My informant computed
that he cleared 5s. a week. His customers
were principally poor women, who liked to sow
mignonette in boxes, or in a garden-border, "if
it had ever such a little bit of sun," and who
resided, he believed, in small, quiet streets,
branching off from the thoroughfares. Of flower-
seeds, the street-sellers dispose most largely
of mignonette, nasturtium, and the various
stocks; and of herbs, the most is done in
parsley. One of my informants, however, "did
best in grass-seeds," which people bought, he
said, "to mend their grass-plots with," sowing
them in any bare place, and throwing soil
loosely over them. Lupin, larkspur, convol-
vulus, and Venus's looking-glass had a fair sale.

The street-trade, in seeds, would be less than
it is, were it not that the dealers sell it in
smaller quantities than the better class of shop-
keepers. The street-traders buy their seeds by
the quarter of a pound — or any quantity not
considered retail — of the nurserymen, who often
write the names for the costers on the paper in
which the seed has to be inclosed. Seed that costs
4d., the street-seller makes into eight penny
lots. "Why, yes, sir," said one man, in answer
to my inquiry, "people is often afraid that our
seeds ain't honest. If they're not, they're
mixed, or they're bad, before they come into our
hands. I don't think any of our chaps does
anything with them."

Fourteen or fifteen years ago, although seeds,
generally, were fifteen to twenty per cent. dearer
than they are now, there was twice the demand
for them. An average price of good mignonette
seed, he said, was now 1s. the quarter of a pound,
and it was then 1s. 2d. to 1s. 6d. The shilling's
worth, is made, by the street-seller, into twenty
or twenty-four pennyworths. An average price
of parsley, and of the cheaper seeds, is less than
half that of mignonette. Other seeds, again, are
not sold to the street-people by the weight, but
are made up in sixpenny and shilling packages.
Their extreme lightness prevents their being
weighed to a customer. Of this class are, the
African marigold, the senecios (groundsel), and
the china-aster; but of these compound flowers,
the street-traders sell very few. Poppy-seed used
to be in great demand among the street-buyers,
but it has ceased to be so. "It's a fine hardy
plant, too, sir," I was told, "but somehow, for
all its variety in colours, it's gone out of fashion,
for fashion runs strong in flowers."

One long-established street-seller, who is well
known to supply the best seeds, makes for
the five weeks or so of the season more
than twice the weekly average of 5s.; perhaps
12s.; but as he is a shop as well as a stall-keeper,
he could not speak very precisely as to the
proportionate sale in the street or the shop.
This man laughed at the fondness some of his
customers manifested for "fine Latin names."
"There are some people," he said, "who will
buy antirrhinum, and artemisia, and digitalis,
and wouldn't hear of snapdragon, or worm-
wood, or foxglove, though they're the identical
plants." The same informant told me that
the railways in their approaches to the metro-
polis had destroyed many small gardens, and
had, he thought, injured his trade. It was,
also, a common thing now for the greengrocers
and corn-chandlers to sell garden-seeds, which
until these six or eight years they did much less
extensively.

Last spring, I was told, there were not more
than four persons, in London, selling only seeds.
The "root-sellers," of whom I have treated,
generally deal in seeds also, but the demand
does not extend beyond four or five weeks in the
spring, though there was "a straggling trade that
way" two or three weeks longer. It was com-
puted for me, that there were fully one hundred
persons selling seeds (with other things) in the
streets, and that each might average a profit of
5s. weekly, for a month; giving 200l. expended
in seeds, with 100l. profit to the costers. Seeds
are rarely hawked as flowers are.

It is impossible to give as minutely detailed
an account of the street-sale of seeds as of flow-
ers, as from their diversity in size, weight,
quantity in a pennyworth, &c., no calculation
can be prepared by weight or measure, only by
value. Thus, I find it necessary to depart some-
what from the order hitherto observed. One
seedsman, acquainted with the street-trade from
his dealings with the vendors, was of opinion
that the following list and proportions were as
nice an approximation as could be arrived at.
It was found necessary to give it in proportions
of twenty-fifths; but it must be borne in mind
that the quantity in ths of parsley, for exam-

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ple, is more than double that of ths of mignon-
ette. I give, in unison, seeds of about equal
sale, whether of the same botanical family or
not. Many of the most popular flowers, such
as polyanthuses, daisies, violets, and primroses,
are not raised from seed, except in the nursery
gardens: —                                        

Seeds.	Twenty-fifths.	Value.
Mignonette	Three	\cp\24
Stocks (of all kinds)	Two	16
Marigolds (do.)	One	8
Convolvulus (do.)	One	8
Wallflower	One	8
Scarlet-beans and
Sweet-peas	One . . .	8
China-asters and Ve-
nus' looking-glass	One	8
Lupin and Larkspur	One	8
Nasturtium	One	8
Parsley	Two	16
Other Pot-herbs	One	8
Mustard and Cress,
Lettuce, and the	Two	16
other vegetables
Grass	One	8
Other seeds	Seven	56
Total expended annually on street-seeds.		\cp\200