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Seed companies produce and sell seeds for flowers, fruit and vegetables to the amateur gardener. The production of seed is a multi billion dollar business, which uses growing facilities and growing locations world wide. While most seed is produced by large specialist growers, large amounts are produced by small growers that produce only one to a few crop types. These larger companies supply seed both to commercial resellers and wholesalers. The resellers and wholesalers sell to vegetable and fruit growers, and to companies who package seed into packets and sell them on to the amateur gardener. Most seed companies or resellers that sell retail, produce a catalog – generally published during early winter for seed to be sown the following spring. These catalogs are eagerly awaited by the amateur gardener, as during winter months there is little that can be done in the garden, so this time can be spent planning the following year’s gardening. The largest collection of nursery and seed trade catalogs in the U.S. is held at the National Agricultural Library. The earliest catalogs there date from the late 18th century, with most published from the 1890s to the present.〔("Guide to the Collections: Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection." ) National Agricultural Library, Special Collections. Retrieved April 23, 2009.〕 Shakers were among the earliest commercial producers of garden seeds; the first seeds sold in paper packets were produced by the Watervliet Shakers.〔''Work and worship among the Shakers: their craftsmanship and economic order,'' Edward Deming Andrews, Faith Andrews, Courier Dover Publications, 1982, p. 53.〕〔Landmarks of American women's history, Chapter: Watervliet Shaker Historic District, Page Putnam Miller, Oxford University Press US, 2003, pp. 36 ff.〕 Seed companies produce a huge range of seeds from highly developed F1 hybrids to open pollinated wild species. Many gardeners like to stick to old familiar varieties but each year seed companies produce new varieties for gardeners to try. They have extensive research facilities to produce plants with better genetic materials that result in improved uniformity and gardening appeal. These improved qualities might include disease resistance, higher yields, dwarf habit and vibrant or new colors. These improvements are often closely guarded to protect them from being utilized by other producers, thus plant cultivars are often sold under their own names and by international laws protected from being grown for seed production by others. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「seed company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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