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FW: Seed Catalogs Offer Glimpse of Yesterday




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From: "ARS News Service" <isnv@ars-grin.gov>
To: "ARS News List" <ars-news@ars-grin.gov>
Subject: Seed Catalogs Offer Glimpse of Yesterday 
Date: Fri, Jul 30, 1999, 6:51 AM


STORY LEAD:
Seed Catalogs Offer Glimpse of Yesterday

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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (510) 559-6070, mwood@asrr.arsusda.gov
July 30, 1999
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Looking for that special horse-drawn lawnmower? You may not find one for
sale, but an old seed catalog has an ad for an "improved" model. That
catalog and more than 170,000 others in a special library collection offer a
nostalgic glimpse of old-time American farming and gardening.

The seed catalogs--dating as far back as the late 1700's--also serve as a
scholarly resource for botanists, historians, statisticians, landscape
architects and others, according to Susan H. Fugate. She oversees the
catalogs and other special collections at the National Agricultural Library
in Beltsville, Md.

NAL, the world's largest agricultural research library, is part of the
Agricultural Research Service, USDA's chief scientific agency.

The catalogs describe thousands of trees, shrubs, bulbs and other plants
that farmers and gardeners of yesteryear bought from seed companies,
nurseries and growers. Ads in some catalogs display farm and garden
implements such as an "improved" horse-drawn lawnmower and special "horse
boots" to keep the animal from "sinking in damp or soft ground."

Library users have combed the catalogs to find out more about the history of
a nursery implement or gardening tool, or to trace the inadvertent sale--and
resulting spread--of plants today regarded as weeds.

Begun in 1904, the collection has been enhanced by donations from attics and
files of nursery companies and institutions such as the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, University of California at Berkeley, and the
Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York City.

The seed catalog collection is featured in an article in the July 1999 issue
of Agricultural Research magazine, available on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul99/folks0799.htm

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Contact: Susan H. Fugate, Special Collections Section, ARS National
Agricultural Library, 10301 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705, phone
(301) 504-5876, fax (301) 504-7593, sfugate@nal.usda.gov.
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This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648.



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