The real test, of course, is how 

 many bushels per acre your yield 

 is increased, but no farmer wants to 

 plant inferior seed even one season if 

 he can help it. 



Most producers undoubtedly are 

 aware of the need for holding customers 

 by providing only honest seed as rep- 

 resented. Yet the fact that exploiters 

 and dishonest dealers have been pedd- 

 ling inferior, if not worthless, clover, 

 alfalfa, and grass seed by mail order 

 and otherwise, leads you to wonder if 

 some of these sharp-shooters will get 

 into the hybrid corn business. The 

 temptation will be great to cut overhead 

 by a shoddy job of detasseling, by us- 

 ing inferior parent s-^ed stocks, and by 

 substituting one hybrid which happens 

 to be a slow mover, for another more 

 popular variety, especially when the 

 margin of profit grows slimmer. 



So what about CERTIFICATION? 



What can the 30 or more state crop 

 improvement associations, organized by 

 leading seed growers with the aid of 

 the agricultural colleges, do to pro- 

 tect the buyer of seed? 



The answer to this question is what 

 this article is chiefly concerned with. 



The Illinois Crop Improvement As- 

 sociation, which carries on seed certi- 

 fication work in this state, was incor- 

 porated as a non-profit organization in 

 1924. 



The purpose of the Association is 

 "to preserve the purity, increase the 

 supply, and hasten the distribution of 

 pure seed of new and improved strains 

 of crops, thus enabling the careful 

 farmer to purchase with confidence and 

 satisfaction." 



The Illinois Crop Improvement As- 

 sociation has approximately 400 mem- 

 bers which include most of the state's 

 leading producers of pure farm seeds. 



When you see the trademark or label 

 of the Crop Improvement Association 

 on a bag of certified seed it means: 



1. That the seed has been certified 

 as a superior variety. (It must 

 have no characteristics which 



ANOTHER NEW SEED HOUSE 

 This one is on the Schwenk Fann in 

 Peoria county. 



make it unprofitable or undesir- 

 able as proved by performance 

 tests conducted annually by the 

 state experiment station.) 



2. That the seed is genuine. 



3. That it is certified as Pure. 



4. That the seed has been inspected 

 after its production, and checked 

 and tested for grade, germination, 

 moisture content, etc. 



In short, seed certification is com- 

 parable to a disinterested outside audit 

 of the books and records of an indus- 

 trial concern for the benefit of the 

 officials and stockholders. The buyer 

 of certified seed can be reasonably sure 

 that he is getting a superior product 

 approved by an impartial auditor. He 

 is not entirely at the mercy of the pro- 

 ducer who may make claims for his 

 seed which may or may not be true. 



The Association will not certify a 

 variety of hybrid seed corn which has 

 not proved its superiority in actual 

 field performance tests during the pre- 

 ceding three years. 



It inspects the single crosses (two 

 inbreds crossed) from which the double 

 cross or commercial hybrid seed corn 

 is produced. In this stage it is easy 

 to detect outcrossing resulting from 



adulteration. An exception was made 

 to this rule in 1938 in the case of large 

 companies which employ trained and 

 experienced breeders. 



After the seed is produced, samples 

 are taken to the state seed testing lab- 

 oratory to check on moisture, disease 

 and germination. The seed must be 

 at least 90 per cent STRONG (not 

 mere germination) to pass inspection. 

 If it contains more than 13 per cent 

 moisture the producer is notified to 

 run it through the drier again. 



Field inspection work during the 

 growing season is done by agricultural 

 college graduates who have studied 

 plant breeding at the college and in addi- 

 tion received three days of sfjecial in- 

 struction by crop specialists at Urbana 

 before starting their work. In Illinois 

 it has been the practice to use mainly 

 high school ag teachers for field inspec- 

 tion. 



A critical time in the production of 

 commercial hybrid seed corn is the 

 tasseling period in July and August. 

 Detasseling is an expensive process. It 

 accounts for much of the increased 

 cost of hybrid seed. Gangs of men 

 must go through the fields daily and pull 

 out every tassel that shows up in the 

 seed-bearing rows BEFORE it sheds 

 pollen. If this work is done carefully, 

 the female rows will be pollinated by 

 the male parent rows. Corn produced 

 in the pollen-bearing rows is discarded. 



During the tasseling period, the crop 

 improvement association inspectors ar- 

 rive at the farms of certified seed pro- 

 ducers unannounced and begin their 

 work. They count off 100 hills in a 

 block and inspect five different blocks 

 (500 hills) in different parts of the 

 field. They examine each corn plant 

 carefully to determine how many tas- 

 sels have been missed. The inspector 

 writes out his report and sends it to 

 headquarters at Urbana. If the inspec- 

 tion shows more than 1 per cent pollen- 

 bearing tassels on the seed rows, cer- 

 tification of that field is refused. 



Even before the detasseling inspec- 



HYBRip CORN ENTHUSIAST CHARLIE HOLMES 

 'Certification is a real protection to the farmer who buys 

 hybrid seed com." 



NEW SEED DRYING AND GRADING MACHINERY 

 takes its place in new additions to old boms as the thrir- 

 ing hybrid com industry gets under way. 



m 





