IMPEOVED STRAINS OF ROOTS 31 



the seed on the market is best illustrated by the fact that 

 while in 1871 samples of clover and grass seeds showed no more 

 than 25 per cent, of pure seed able to germinate, similar samples 

 in 1889, at the death of the founder of the station, showed 

 80 per cent., with a marked improvement in the varieties used. 

 The Seed Testing Station, originally a private venture, had 

 proved so valuable an aid to farmers and to honest seed 

 merchants that it was taken over by the State in 1891, since 

 when it has developed to such an extent that the 1600 samples 

 tested in 1891 had increased to 24,400 samples in 1918-19. 



When M011er- Hoist began his work of testing the genuineness, 

 purity, germination, and even the origin of samples of agricul- 

 tural seed, he offered to Danish farmers just that opportunity 

 which some far-seeing men had been wanting. One of these, 

 like not a few rural reformers in Denmark, came from the 

 teaching profession. Chr. P. Jacobsen, born in 1841 in the 

 Danish North Slesvig, and in 1864, when Denmark lost Slesvig, 

 transferred to a school in Thisted (the place where in 1866 

 the Rochdale co-operative system was introduced), took an 

 intelligent interest in agriculture. In 1868 he started a 

 weekly paper, Landmands-Blade, and wrote a long series of 

 articles, in which, among many other subjects, he dealt with 

 the greatly neglected state of the trade in agricultural seed, 

 which he characterised as " the lawlessness of ignorance." In 

 1872 he was joined by another teacher, J. L. Jensen, whose 

 monograph on the potato disease (Phytophihora infastans) in 

 1882 was awarded a gold medal by La Societe Nationale 

 d' Agriculture de France, and by the gardener, Fr. Wendt. 

 These three men issued an invitation to farmers to participate 

 in the joint purchase of analysed seed and seed corn, in order 

 to secure to farmers seed of the best quality, of suitable origin, 

 and at reasonable prices. So successful was the appeal that 

 2000 farmers joined, and 250,000 Ibs. of seed of guaranteed 

 purity and germination were supplied in 1873. The seed firm of 

 Andr. Schmidt joined them two years later, and the three 

 original founders, with Messrs. Schmidt and Carl Maag, founded 

 an " Office for the Joint Purchase of Analysed Seed," or 

 " Markfr0kontoret," This firm has been a pioneer in the seed 

 trade. Not only has it reformed the trade, but also fostered 



