NATURAL ENVIRONMENT 5ci 



braska or Iowa; Sonora wheat in California; and hard spring 

 wheats in the Dakotas or Minnesota. 



Dealers in seed may be divided into three classes according 

 to the methods which they pursue. One class buys seed in 

 the open market and sells it as that variety for which it was 

 bought. Such dealers should be required either to improve 

 their methods or to seek a new occupation, for usually the most 

 advantageous disposition that can be made of their seed is 

 at the nearest grist mill. Another class buys by sample in the 

 open market, using all care possible under the circumstances to 

 secure correctly named seed of good quality. They make germi- 

 nation tests, reclean the seed if necessary, remove light and in- 

 jured seeds, and offer for sale only those which are good and 

 sound. There is a small class of dealers each of whom makes 

 a specialty of some variety which he has grown under con- 

 tract. Two points of great importance in regard to their seed 

 is that it is usually of the highest quality and almost always 

 true to name. The grower, in looking for a wheat with the 

 proper origin and history, should have a knowledge of the main 

 facts and laws set forth in this and the previous chapter, and 

 should select seed according to the needs of his environment. 

 He should buy by sample in the fall or winter before sowing. 

 Its purity he can have determined, and a simple home germinat- 

 ing test will give its capacity in germination. Many farmers 

 may not yet be able thus to procure intelligently the seed best 

 suited to their environment, but they have a number of insti- 

 tutions at their command whose business it is to dispense in- 

 formation of exactly this nature. Some experimentation must 

 always be engaged in. 



It is only within a few years that the quality of commercial 

 seeds has been subjected to any tests other than those made 

 by the reliable seed firms. This shows a great lack of apprecia- 

 tion of one of the essential factors of agriculture. It is one 

 of the most remarkable and unaccountable facts in connection 

 with the development of the United States Department of Ag- 

 riculture that it spent a neat fortune in distributing seeds for 

 over a half century, and never once tested the quality of the 

 seeds sent out. In 1895, "for the first time in the history of 

 the department did its authorities know the real quality of 

 the seeds they had distributed. ' ' 



1 Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1897, p 94. 



