CHAPTER II 



IMPROVED STRAINS OF ROOTS, SELECTED BY COMPARA- 

 TIVE CULTIVATIONS AT THE EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS 

 OP THE STATE 



SEVERAL years before Fjord began teaching Danish farmers 

 the true feeding value of roots other public- spirited men had 

 done some very important work to improve the growing of 

 roots and other farm crops, and to encourage and improve the 

 growing of seed. For many years farmers had been in the habit 

 of themselves producing some of the seed they needed, but with- 

 out any system. Of root seed, however, foreign seeds were 

 mostly used, but often of unsatisfactory quality, of low germina- 

 tion, and sometimes very impure. As early as 1860 Frantz 

 Wendt, a gardener, of Koskilde, encouraged farmers to grow 

 seed, more especially of roots and forage crops, and to select 

 the best plants from which to take seed. He pointed out that 

 there was very much adulterated imported seed in the market, 

 and maintained that home-grown seed, harvested fully ripe 

 from plants well cultivated in rich soil, was better than even the 

 best imported seed. It is interesting to note that at that early 

 date he recommended testing seed by sowing a counted number 

 of seeds in shallow pans ; 75 per cent, ought to germinate. 1 

 The first seed-testing station in the world was founded nine 

 years later, in Tharand, in Saxony, by Nobbe, and in 1871 

 E. M011er- Hoist, editor of the oldest Danish weekly agricultural 

 paper, Ugeskrift for Landmtend, started his " Danish Field 

 Seed Control " in Copenhagen. As the station in Tharand no 

 longer exists, the Danish Seed Testing Station is the oldest in 

 the world, and is the one at which at present the greatest number 

 of analyses are made. The effect of this station in improving 



1 Fr. Wendt, " Om Saedefr0," Ugeskrifl for landmxnd, 1860, p. 236. 



