88 FORAGE CROPS IN DENMARK 



seeds were likely to give or what they ought to give. The trade 

 as a rule was hampered by no such consideration. Then came 

 in the seventies the reform introduced by Chr. P. Jacobsen on 

 the strength of E. M011er Hoist's seed testing, and gradually 

 the idea that the seed ought to have a certain germination and 

 purity gained ground. But while this was sufficient for most 

 kinds of seed, and was gradually developed as already explained, 

 it was far from sufficient for root seed ever since the Comparative 

 Cultivations, carried out by Helweg on behalf of the State 

 Committee on Plant Culture, had proved that some strains 

 yielded a much larger quantity of food for cattle than others. 

 Then it became a question for the farmers to secure seed of 

 such strains, and it became a question for the merchants to supply 

 seed of these strains. Of course, it took years to educate the 

 farmers to see the importance of this new development. The 

 first stage was reached when farmers asked for seed which 

 yielded a large crop of roots, but Helweg pointed out in his 

 reports as early as 1891, " how senseless " it was of farmers to 

 look only for a large crop without asking what the roots con- 

 tained of dry matter, of nourishment for their cattle, and he 

 called upon farmers to " demand from seed growers analysis 

 or guarantee of the food-producing character of the seed they 

 bought." Such a guarantee could only be given when the 

 origin of the seed was known, when, that is to say, it was known 

 that the seed was produced from roots of a strain which by the 

 Comparative Cultivations has been found to be a Class I. strain, 

 one of those which yielded the highest amount of food-stuff 

 per acre. 



A son of Chr. P. Jacobsen J. E. Jacobsen was manager 

 of the seed business of the F. D. B. (the Danish Co-operative 

 Wholesale Society), and to him belongs the honour of having 

 in 1906 introduced into the trade in root seed the Guarantee 

 of Genuineness, the guarantee that the seed is of the strain 

 stated. The guarantee of purity and germination is decided 

 by the analyses of the Seed Testing Station, the guarantee of 

 genuineness, as now developed, is decided by Helweg, as the 

 Root Seed Commissioner of the State. Leading firms subse- 

 quently adopted this new feature in the trade in root seed, and 

 they could do it for such seed as they produced themselves, 



