312 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Seed Selection. 



P. E. CLEMENT, MOORHEAD. 



Any discussion concerning the need of better seed of all 

 kinds is unnecessary before this convention. The facts are so 

 obvious to you that they need no explanation. The problem 

 before us today is that of placing these facts before the farmer 

 in such a forceful manner that he must heed them. These ques- 

 tions have been discussed in conferences, for lo! these many 

 years. Volumes have been written on the subject and these same 

 volumes now lie on the shelf, covered with dust, or have been used 

 to kindle the morning fire. The past methods have failed to reach 

 but a very few of the most aggressive farmers, because a large 

 majority do not have time to read this voluminous matter. 



The impression that reaches the mind through the eye is 

 much more lasting than that which reaches it through the ear, 

 and that which reaches it through the pocketbook is most effective 

 of all. This being the case, it seems to me that the method of 

 procedure is clear. We must in some way show the farmer that 

 there is money in selecting good seed, that he can make bigger 

 wages per day at this work than at any other one operation on the 

 farm and that at a time when the farm work is not rushing. 



One of the wheat demonstrations carried on in Clay County, 

 Minn., furnishes a good example. The demonstrator went to 

 this man's place when he was seeding and found that the wheat 

 he was sowing was foul of weed seeds and contained much shriv- 

 eled grain. The farmer readily consented to clean enough for a 

 six acre plot. The time required to clean a place in the granary, 

 move the fanning mill from another building (he had not had 

 time to use it that season) and running the wheat through twice 

 — taking out about one-fourth — was one and one half hours for 

 the two of us, or three hours for one man. 



All through the growing season the line between the plot and 

 the field was easily distinguished by the more vigorous growth 

 and darker green color of the wheat on the plot. One and a half 

 bushels per acre more was threshed from the plot than from the 

 field, or nine bushels more from the whole plot. This nine bush- 

 els at eighty cents per bushel would bring $7.20. What does this 

 $7.20 represent? Only three hours time. At this rate, in a ten 

 hour day, this farmer could have earned $24.00. 



But why reduce it to dollars and cents? Isn't one and one 

 half bushels per acre sufficient evidence? No, I think not, be- 



