16 



HORTICULTURE 



July 3, 1909 



AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOCIATfON 



AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOCIA- 

 TION. 

 Continuation of Convention Report 

 from Last Week's Issue. 

 On Wednesday, June 23, Prof. C. A. 

 Zavitz, of Ontario Agricultural Col- 

 lege, delivered a paper on "Root Crops" 

 which proved interesting and was well 

 received. It gave results of careful 

 tests conducted by the Agricultural 

 ■ College, Guelph, Ont, showing compari- 

 sons between production of seeds of 

 mangels, swede turnips and carrots 

 home-grown as compared with im- 

 ported seeds of same class. On the 

 whole, home-grown has proved higher 

 in germination and more productive of 

 roots than the imported. A large 

 amount of work has been done to de- 

 termine the influence of different selec- 

 tions of seed upon the resulting crop. 

 In the ninety-four distinct experi- 

 ments conducted with large, medium- 

 sized and small seeds, in eighty-fiVe 

 per cent, of the separate tests the 

 larger seeds produced more heavily 

 than the smaller. In a series of experi- 

 ments in planting root seeds at differ- 

 ent depths in soil through a series of 

 years, on land of lower and higher 

 levels, average clay loam soil, five 

 years with mangels and sugar beets, 

 four years with swede turnips and car- 

 rots, records showed best results at 

 halt inch below the surface. Five 

 years' experiments thinning roots at 

 different distances apart in the row 

 shows as distance increased average 

 size of root increased in crop with de- 

 crease in percentage of dry matter, 

 and also in yield of roots per acre. 

 In five years' experiments sowing 

 sugar beets in rows at different dis- 

 tances apart, by having rows closer 

 together furnished larger yield of roots 

 and larger yield of sugar per acre. 

 In thinning sugar beets at different 

 stages of growth in each of five years 

 the greatest average yield per acre was 

 obtained when thinning the plants 

 when about two inches in height. 



Edgar Brown, botanist in charge of 

 the seed laboratory U. S. Dept. of 



Agriculture, Washington, D. C. gave a 

 short address explaining something of 

 the work the department is doing in 

 inyestigating the purity and quality of 

 seeds, etc. He said that he realized 

 that a large amount of poor seed is 

 sold every year and that the reason 

 that so low a quality is sold is because 

 the farm'er very largely wants some- 

 thing that he can get cheaply. He 

 does not want to pay the price for good 

 seed. The department wishes to show 

 him his mistake by making it possible 

 for him to know what he is getting. 

 The result of the work being done will 

 be to increase the market prices for 

 good seeds. That the general average 

 of increase in quality is progressing 

 has been shown during the past year, 

 the samples being taken by the depart- 

 ment indiscriminately showing a 

 marked improvement, and greater 

 care is being exercised by the seeds- 

 men in the examination of stock they 

 are buying and selling. He said that 

 many are availing themselves of the 

 opportunity to visit the testing labora- 

 tory during the summer, and extended 

 an invitation to all whom they might 

 be able to accommodate to visit same 

 about the 13th of July and for six to 

 eight weeks thei'eafter. The address 

 was well received and the apparently 

 perfectly fair attitude of the speaker 

 was commented on favorably; he was 

 however, subjected to a rapid fire r' 

 cross questions as to the methods of 

 testing used, and as to the reason why 

 there have been so many state laws 

 introduced of so heterogeneous a char- 

 acter during a comparatively recent 

 period. The speaker parried or an- 

 swered all questions skilfully and 

 contended that the department had not 

 instigated any legislation while they 

 were certainly not in a position to 

 control the same, and properly direct 

 it. Messrs. C. F. Wood, F. C. Wood- 

 ruff, Wilson, Dickinson, Albert Mc- 

 Cullough. Peppard, Ebeling, Vaughan. 

 Dibble and Green, took part in the dis- 

 cussion. 



At the Wednesday afternoon session 

 an address was delivered by Prof. L. 

 H. Bailey, Director N. Y. State Col- 

 lege of Agriculture, on "A Campaign 

 for Rural Progress." He said that as 



there is a city phase of our civilization 

 so there is a country or rural phase, 

 and it is as necessary that we should 

 develop the one as the other, but we 

 have lieretofore given our attention 

 cliiefly to the city phase; more atten- 

 tion should be directed to the needs 

 and development of country life. Our 

 attention to the rural question has 

 been largely on the side of making 

 farms more profitable; but while agri- 

 culture for profit is a phase of country 

 life not to be despised, it is not all of 

 country life. The country |)eople must 

 live their own lives along broad lines 

 as well as city people do theirs; they 

 must have their institutions, their re- 

 creations and their outlook on life. 

 All these will contribute directly to 

 the national life and welfare as well 

 as to the welfare of the city people as 

 the country people themselves; there- 

 fore it becomes a question of broad 

 public policy for every one to interest 

 himself in these problems. We must 

 bring the intelligence of all the people 

 to bear on these great rural questions 

 in order that we may develop the rural 

 civilization which will permanently 

 satisfy the man of ideals and which 

 will be a worthy contribution to the 

 civilisation of our time. The forego- 

 ing brief resume of the more salient 

 and main conclusions does not do 

 jrst:'ce to the breadth of view and com- 

 l)rehenfive character of tlie address. 



A vote of thanks was returned to 

 Prof. Eailey on motion of Mr. Cross- 

 land. A paper by Mr. J. M. Lupton, 

 of Mattituck, L. I., N. Y., closed the 

 afternoon's ])roceedings. 



At the banquet Wednesday evening 

 five-minute tail's were given by Henry 

 W. Wood. J. C. RobiuFon, E. L. Page, 

 Geo. S. Green, Kirby White, Charles 

 Dickinson. S. E. Briggs, F. C. Wood- 

 ruff, C. F. Wood, J. C. Vaughan, Ar- 

 thur B. Clarke, Curtis Nye Smith, 

 Harry L. Holmes. Chas. N. Page, fol- 

 lowed by an interesting lecture on 

 Color Photography, illustrated with 

 views from nature, by J. Horace Mc- 

 Farland, Harrisburg, Pa. The lecturer 

 briefly sketched the scientific side of 

 the Ltxmiere autochrome system of 

 color photography, and referred to pre- 

 vious processes attempted. By far the 



