EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 619 



Those originate from common rye admixture. These are the points that 

 must be considered in inspecting the farmers' fields. 



CERTIFIED ROSEN RYE. 



The Michigan Crop Improvement Association began field and grain in- 

 spection work in 1.917, under the leadership of the association's secretary. 

 In the first year only five per cent of the Rosen rye acreage was considered 

 pure enough for registration. This was due to the ordinary threshing prac- 

 tices and the growing of common rj-e in adjoining fields. The other 95 per 

 cent was sold as commercial Rosen. It was quoted on the Detroit market 

 that year, and carloads became available to other states. 



The grain that was passed by the association's inspection became certified 

 and was sold under the shipping tags of the association. Thus pedigreed 

 grain became available to the farmers of other states as well as to those of 

 Michigan. As the result of this activity in war times when farmers were 

 being urged to sow the best seed, approximately 250,000 acres of Rosen rye 

 were sown in Michigan in the fall of 1917. 



The inspectors of the IMichigan Crop Improvement Association began 

 work in June 1918, and during the following month passed about 1000 acres. 

 This acreage produced 22,349 bushels, a good yield when it is remembered 

 that most of it grew on sanch' soil, and that a yield of 15 bushels per acre 

 was considered a high return before Rosen was distributed. Again under 

 the stress of war conditions, the acreage was doubled in one year, as over 

 500,000 acres of Rosen and high grade Rosen were sown in Michigan in the 

 fall of 1918. Of this about 5,800 acres were grown from pedigreed seed. 



The 1919 inspection passed 468 acres yielding 10,563 bushels of pedigreed 

 Rosen for seed in the fall of 1919. This area averaged 22.4 bushels per acre. 



SPREAD TO OTHER STATES. 



The gro"udng of Rosen rye in other states began commercially as early 

 as there was a supply. It has gone from farm to farm across the state line, 

 into Indiana and Ohio, until the upper two rows of counties in Indiana have 

 as much Rosen rye as the southern row of counties in Michigan. When 

 carloads became available in 1917, the trade grew rapidly, increasing steadily 

 since that year, and now several elevators and seed firms in Michigan count 

 their sales of Rosen rye for seed in dozens of carloads annually. Much of 

 this seed is purchased in sections where the rye is reasonably pure, but, un- 

 fortunately comparatively few people seem to realize that rye cross-fertilizes. 

 A great deal of the rye that is now sold as Rosen is very badly mixed. The 

 results obtained with this commercial seed are frequently not equal to those 

 obtained by the use of seed inspected in the field and bin by the Michigan 

 Crop Improvement Association which co-operates with the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station in maintaining high standards of purity. 



PEDIGREED ROSEN IN OTHER STATES. 



The extension of pedigreed Rosen into other states began in 1917, when 

 the inspection work began, but the sales made by members of the Associ- 

 ation were imperfectly recorded that year. However in 1918 and 1919, 

 a fair proportion of these sales have been reported. The outline map figure 

 3 shows the sales in 1918, and figure 4 shows the corresponding sales for 

 1919. 



