56 FOEAGE CEOPS IN DENMAEK 



can be concentrated on these few. The farmers, too, benefitted 

 now that information as to where to buy the best seed was 

 available. They were spared the trouble and uncertainty of 

 having to decide which of the many well-advertised varieties 

 with enticing new names they should choose, and they reaped 

 the advantage of better yielding crops. 



It was evident that the competitions during the next years 

 would be between a few selected strains and sub-strains derived 

 from these. A far closer contest between the competing strains 

 could be foreseen, and therefore a sharper, more searching test 

 was required. At a meeting of the State Committee in March, 

 1910, new rules for future competitions were consequently 

 proposed by Helweg and carried. 1 The object was declared to 

 be as hitherto to obtain a greater yield from the root fields of 

 the country ; the means was to assist seed growers to improve 

 their strains by offering them reliable information as to how 

 their strains compared with others. In order to obtain greater 

 reliability, it was decided to grow the samples during three 

 consecutive years, each sample of seed entered being divided 

 into three portions, one to be sown each year. Invitations were 

 to be published by the State Committee every third year in 

 September to seed growers with a stock of at least 10 cwts. of 

 seed of mangels, or at least 5 cwts. of seed of turnips or swedes, 

 or 2| cwts. of seed of carrots, to enter samples of their strains, 

 to have them tested by comparison with other samples by 

 growing them three years in succession. It was a condition, 

 however, that the seed grower should have cultivated the strain 

 for at least six years. New varieties or strains from other 

 countries could be accepted. Each sample of seed was to be 

 grown on at least four of the official Experimental Stations. 

 The samples of seed, to be delivered free of cost, were to be 

 drawn by Helweg during the month of December as an average 

 sample of the whole stock of trade seed. The samples were 

 dried to enable them to keep, and the germination was tested 

 each year. 



It was a drawback to this arrangement that growers had to 

 wait so long for the result. It was therefore decided that a 



1 Berelning fra Statens Planteavlsudvalg, K0benhavn, 191], p. 77 and 

 135. 



