INTRODUCTION. 



We can not lay too much stress ou the importance of the farmer's 

 selecting his own seed wherever it is practicable for him to do 

 so. It not only saves him money in the purchase of the so-called 

 improved seeds, but it guards him against great loss in yield from 

 using varieties which, though good in their own localities, are worth- 

 less when grown under new conditions of soil and climate. 



There are cases, however, where it may pay the farmer to let 

 some good, honest seed breeder improve his seed for him while he 

 occupies his time with other lines of his business. But whenever the 

 fanner purchases seed corn and cotton seed, and seed wheat and seed 

 oats, he should not fail to have his breeder answer in detail the fol- 

 lowing questions, namely: How long have you been improving this 

 variety ? What kind of soil do you grow your crop on — sandy soil, 

 clay soil, upland soil, or bottomland soil ? Is the soil red, gray, or 

 black. Having received a faithful ansmer to these questions, the 

 farm should then know the exact cultural methods used by his breeder. 

 He should know first how deep the land was plowed and when the 

 plowing was done ; how much and what kind of manure and fertilizers 

 were used ; how often and how late cultivation was practiced as well as 

 what tools were used in the cultivation ; then, finally, what yield per 

 acre was obtained under his conditions. Less information than this 

 is insufficient for the farmer who is going to risk his profits for the 

 coming year on the possible performance or nonperformance of the 

 variety in question. No farmer would buy a horse without some 

 knowledge of his performance record, and why should he know less 

 about a new variety of corn, cotton, or wheat than he would insist on 

 knowing about the horse ? 



We have interviewed a large number of commercial plant breeders 

 in various parts of the United States, and all of them say that they 

 would have been handsomely paid for their work from the increased 

 yields on their own farms had they not sold a pound of seed to the 

 public. It should be significant to the farmers of our State that these 

 commercial breeders are not in the market for new varieties. They 

 are confident that they have the best varieties they can get. Where 

 did they get them ? They made them. 



Last year we got together a large number of varieties of corn and 

 cotton and grew them in competition with each other in different 

 parts of the State on as many different types of soil. The results of 

 these tests will be seen in the following tables. 



In addition to the work done on the Test Farms, variety tests of 

 corn and cotton were conducted on the farm of S. W. Wilkinson, near 

 Belhaven, and on the Caledonia farm, near Tillery, in Halifax 

 County. The work on the Caledonia farm was done at the request 

 of Captain Laughinghouse, Superintendent of the State's Prison. 



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