THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE 

 Vol. V. November, 1916. No. 11 



PURE SEED LEGISLATION.* 



By George P. Weldon. 



It was with considerable hesitancy on my part that a decision was 

 finally reached, to discuss the matter of a pure seed law for California 

 at this meeting. This hesitancy was not because of a lack of interest, 

 for you will no doubt agree with me that the subject is one worthy of 

 the most careful consideration, but because of the fact that we are not 

 certain that we have been able thus far to draft a bill that is worthy of 

 the support of both the seedmen and the farmer who is interested in 

 getting the best seed that can be produced. 



Several states in the Union have laws relating to the inspection and 

 certification of seeds. Maine, INIichigan and North Dakota furnish us 

 with examples of laws which no doubt have had a beneficial effect upon 

 the seed business in those states. A legislative committee appointed by 

 the Association of Seed Analysts of North America, met in June, 1915, 

 and drafted a uniform State Seed Law, with the idea of having it or a 

 similar law adopted in as many of the states as possible. Mr. J. P. 

 Helyar, of the New Jersey Experiment Station at New Brunswick, was 

 chairman of this committee. Many good ideas are embodied in this law, 

 but in some respects it does not meet the greatest needs of the business. 



In California pure seed legislation has already begun in the Certified 

 Seed Potato Act which was passed by the legislature in 1915. You are 

 no doubt all more or less familiar with the provisions of this act, and 

 it is not necessary to enter into a detailed discussion regarding it here. 

 "While this is only the second season that this act had been in operation, 

 its great value already seems assured. This year we hope there will be 

 more than 300 acres certified. Two fields of 100 acres each are being 

 inspected for certification with every indication of a large amount of 

 seed being worthy of a state certified seed label. 



If the idea of certification is good with potatoes it should also be 

 good with other crops used for seed, and it is my firm belief that the 

 greatest good will result not from inspection of seed in the package to 

 determine the freedom from weed seed and other impurities, but from 

 the inspection of growing crops and the encouraging of seed selection 

 and seed breeding by certifying through a state label that which is 

 found by such inspection to be worthy. There must, of course, be some 

 purity standards to prevent the wholesale dissemination of weeds, and 

 there is also need for germination standards. These, however, while 

 important, should not furnish the entire basis of legislation. To be 

 more specific, alfalfa seed may be perfectly free from weed seeds and 

 foreign matter of every description; it may show a high percentage of 

 germination, and yet may not be of a good variety or a heavy producing 

 strain. 



♦Address before the California Nurserymen's Association, Santa Barbara, Octo- 

 ber 26, 1916. 

 26498 



