64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. * [Pub. Doc. 



that, and ought to think of it; but there are a great many 

 things we ought to do and ought to keep in mind when we 

 judge people. In judging anything we are apt to forget 

 things we should remember, and be overcome by prejudice, 

 or accident, or circumstances. 



Mr. Bowkek. We had in this State twenty-five years ago 

 a general fertilizer law. It was just as good in effect as the 

 law of to-day, because it required that we should state what 

 we had, but there was nobody who could enforce the law. 

 It didn't provide for the machinery, and inspection, and 

 analysis, and publication, and that is where the difficulty was. 

 Now we may have a national law, a United States law, gov- 

 erning the matter of seed ; but if there is no system to en- 

 force it, you don't get the results that you ought to get. My 

 point is this: I would like to put this direct to the speaker, 

 — would he favor a State law controlling the futurity and 

 vitality of seeds, with the machinery of inspection, an in- 

 spector to inspect them, and the testing all done under similar 

 conditions with that in other lines ? The dealer should not 

 be held responsible after the seed leaves him, but it seems 

 to me he should be up to that time when the seed leaves his 

 hands, the same as a milk dealer is, or the same as I am. 



Mr. Tracy. If I am obliged to answer, I want to answer 

 entirely from my personal standpoint. I am known to be 

 connected with the Department of Agriculture, and I don't 

 want to speak in any sense officially ; but it does not seem to 

 me that it is practical and possible to have the same sort of a 

 law of guarantee that we have with our fertilizers; that is, 

 that seed shall be sold with a branded guarantee of vitality, 

 except as to its condition when it leaves the seedsman's hands. 

 That, of course, involves a great deal of expense and a great 

 deal of machinery, and would cause an additional expense 

 for seeds. I have known over and over again of where 

 seedsmen have had lots of seed they were unwilling to sell, 

 and had rejected as not fit for use; but farmers come in 

 and say, " Why, this John Smith down here offers seed 

 at half the price you are asking," and the seedsman said, 

 " Well, I have some here I can sell at that price, but it is 

 a low quality," and the farmer has, with that knowledge, 



