November 18, 1916 



HORT ICULTURE 



671 



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WRITE FOR CATALOGUE 



VEGETABLE GROWERS' ASSOCIA- 

 TION OF AMERICA. 



Keport of the Committee on Nomenclature 

 and Varieties by I'rof. C. E. Durat. 



The principal work of the Commit- 

 tee on Nomenclature o£ the Vegetable 

 Growers' Association of America the 

 past year has been done in connection 

 with a similar committee appointed by 

 The American Seed Trade Association 

 for the express purpose of co-operat- 

 ing with us. In handling this sub- 

 ject your committee has taken the 

 same position that the American 

 Pomological Society took over fifty 

 years ago. We believe a variety name 

 should contain as few words as pos- 

 sible. It should be distinctive and. if 

 possible, suggestive of the variety for 

 which intended. The rights of the 

 originator and introducer should be 

 fully recognized and conserved. A 

 name already in use for one variety 

 should not be used for another va- 

 riety. The name of the variety, once 

 given, should not be changed. In the 

 last analysis, the whole proposition 

 revolves around the point as to 

 whether or not the seedsmen .should 

 exercise absolute control over the 

 name. In other words do they own 

 it? Your committee, after long and 

 careful thought, believes that so long 

 as a seedsman, or any other person 

 for that matter, has a variety under 

 test, or is growing it for his own per- 

 sonal use, he may call it anything he 

 wishes or may change the name as 

 often as he desires. However, when 

 a variety is once introduced to the 

 trade, it automatically becomes a mat- 

 ter of concern to the general horti- 

 cultural public, who should be entitled 

 to some interest in the form and 

 stability of the name. 



Your committee feels it is almost 

 futile to expect any important results 

 in standardizing existing nomencla- 

 ture. It is our hope that the seeds- 

 men will be induced to drop off some 

 of the superfluous descriptive adjec- 

 tives. We hope also to dissuade them 

 from renaming varieties now on the 

 market. Beyond this, we hardly ex- 

 pect to accomplish much with exist- 

 ing conditions. If we can begin at 

 the present point and secure the co- 

 operation of the seedsmen in regulat- 

 ing and standardizing nomenclature 

 for the future, we feel that the pres- 

 ent complicated conditions will take 

 care of themselves in due time. 



In all of the correspondence and dis- 

 cussions, your committee has strongly 

 contended that a duly authorized 

 board or committee should be given 

 charge of the testing, describing, es- 

 tablishing of types and certification 

 of varieties. It is our idea that this 

 committee or board in co-operation 

 with the originator or introducer, 

 would decide upon a name that typi- 

 fies the variety, and at the same time 

 recognizes the advertising value of a 

 name to the dealers, protects the or- 

 iginator or introducer and conforms to 



an established system of nomencla- 

 ture to make buying easier for the 

 consumers. The proposed introduc- 

 tion would be offered to the above 

 board or committee for test, it being 

 understood that no portion of the seed 

 or stock should be given to other 

 parties or used for any purpose other 

 than testing. In order to further pro- 

 tect the introducer, he may offer the 

 proposed variety to the trade at the 

 same time it is offered for test. If. 

 after due trial, the proposed new va- 

 riety proves meritorious, it would be 

 duly registered or certified. 



We firmly believe that a policy of 

 testing and certification will go a long 

 way toward establishing and main- 

 taining the rights of the originator 

 and introducer. A man who origi- 

 nates or introduces a meritorious 

 plant variety does as great a service 

 for mankind as he who invents an im- 

 proved machine, and certainly he 

 should receive full credit for the same, 

 and his rights should be conserved. 

 With conditions such as have prevail- 

 ed in the past, the identity of the or- 

 iginator and introducer are soon lost 

 in the maze of names given a variety 

 in the catalogues. The better the va- 

 riety the more this is true, and the 

 longer it takes the variety to work 

 itself into favor. 



The proposed testing certification, 

 we believe, should be placed in charge 

 of an authority who would have no 

 interest or purpose other than be of 

 service to all parties concerned. At 

 the same time, this authority should 

 be such that its findings and decisions 

 would command respect by all parties 

 concerned, and, of course, it should 

 have a full understanding of the de- 

 tails necessary for conducting com- 

 parative tests. The U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, either alone or in con- 

 junction with state experiment sta- 

 tions, should meet such qualifications, 

 and the question remains as to wheth- 

 er or not it could be prevailed upon 

 to conduct this important service. 

 Your committee feels, however, that 

 before any public institution should 

 assume this responsibility, it should 

 be duly authorized for the same. This 

 feeling on the part of your committee, 

 coupled with the fact that our rela- 

 tions with the seed trade people have 

 s!iggested the great necessity of care- 

 fully working out all details before at- 

 tempting and testing, led us to delay 

 the testing which we hoped to start 

 this year and which we stated we ex- 

 pected to do in the fast year's report. 

 Our thanks are due to the experiment 

 stations who offered to co-operate in 

 this work. We regret to have asked 

 this favor of them and not to have 

 taken advantage of it at once. 



In regard to the length of the name. 

 it is our idea that it should consist 

 of not over two words, including that 

 of the originator or introducer, if it 

 is desired to prefix that. The seed 

 trade people contend that a liberal use 

 of descriptive adjectives is necessary 



for the small home grower, who is not 

 PC familiar with varieties as the com- 

 mercial grower. These people, they 

 claim, can often get a more accurate 

 idea of the characteristics of a va- 

 riety from a number of descriptive 

 adjectives than if they read the fine 

 print. This view seems plausible on 

 first thought, but the trouble about 

 the mutter is that one seed dealer goes 

 one way in the choice of adjectives, 

 and others go in other directions. 

 Soon, they are so far apart that it is 

 almost inconceivable that they had a 

 common starting point. For instance. 

 Prof. Tracy, in his study of best va- 

 rieties, found the variety Early Blood 

 Turnip (the original name) varying 

 all the way from that name to Im- 

 proved Kxtra Long Deep Blood Tur- 

 nip, with practically every combina- 

 tion between. How could any grower, 

 we ask, be certain that beets grown 

 from seed sold under such widely dif- 

 ferent names would be of the same 

 variety? 



The members of the American Seed 

 Trade Asso.. it appears, feel that home 

 growers know little about varieties. 

 This contention needs qualification, 

 we believe. Take the old standard 

 Stone tomato. The Evergreen sweet 

 corn. The Early Ohio potato and 

 many others which might be named. 

 What home grower is not familiar 

 with these? No long string of ad- 

 jectives is needed in these cases. Why 

 should they be needed in other cases? 

 On the other hand, we admit that 

 the home growers may not be so well 

 acquainted with the introductions of 

 recent years, but we feel that this Is 

 due largely to the fact that the names 

 are not usually left long enough In the 

 same form to enable these people to 

 become acquainted with them. 



As to the changing of names, your 

 committee has held consistently that 

 the name once given to a variety 

 should not be changed. The Ameri- 

 can Seed Trade Asso. state It Is nec- 

 essary to change the name In some 

 cases because they find a variety does 

 not sell well under one name, that is, 

 they allege that the name has no ad- 

 vertising value. For instance, at the 

 Seed Trade Convention, one member 

 stated that Golden Bantam sweet corn 

 was formerly sold under another 

 name, but that there was little de- 

 mand for it. Mr. Burpee It was stated, 

 recognized the value of the variety, 

 renamed It. and from that time on- 

 ward, the sales rapidly Increased. This 

 the member held, was the result of 

 choosing a better name. Now, it will 

 be remembered that the Burpee Seed 

 Co. conducted a most strenuous ad- 

 vertising campaign in connection with 

 Golden Bantam sweet corn, and we 

 are inclined to feel that Mr. Burpee's 

 genius in the field of advertising was 

 more responsible for the increase In 

 popularity than the mere changing of 

 the name. With us. It Is an open 

 point whether or not the variety 

 would not have met the same success 



