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Livestock Department. We recognize that plant and animal life are 

 identical and the laws that govern one must necessarily govern the other. 

 We further believe that the chief object of the parents living is to produce 

 offspring and to give these offspring a fair start in life. The simple little 

 -things have not been understood by the average farmer such as the 

 flower, structure of the different plants, their method of reproduction and 

 the interior structure of the plants. Such knowledge is in order that he 

 may be sure of the adaptation of different plants to different soils and 

 climatic conditions. 



I am very much afraid that we have been endeavoring to teach a 

 more complicated system of practice before a systematic foundation has 

 been established. We should start at the beginning with agricultural 

 advice much the same as a child is started in the primary grades and not 

 with the latest theories of any accepted authority. 



The factors most essential in increased grain production are the 

 seed, preparation of the seed bed, crop rotation and the chemical and 

 physical condition of the soil. 



The matter of seed: each variety must necessarily be adapted to the 

 soil and climatic conditions where it is to be grown. Every condition 

 favorable to the growth of the plant must be provided for and this can 

 only be done from intimate knowledge with the qualifications and needs 

 of the various varieties, as adapted to each and every kind of soil and 

 climatic condition. In grains our variety classification at the present 

 time is uncertain, one variety is found masquerading under any number 

 of names with no system whatsoever. The farmer in the northern part 

 of the country may be growing a variety of oats which he presumes to be 

 the Swedish Select and adapted to his particular section but for some 

 reason or another the variety he is growing will not produce successfully 

 and upon investigation it may be found that he is growing a variety quite 

 different from that which the name implies and not in any way adapted 

 to his conditions. 



The first essential thing then in the matter of seed is a systematic 

 classification of varieties. This classification when made should be pub- 

 lished repeatedly and widely, together, with a complete description of 

 each variety and the soil and climatic conditions in which it is best 

 adapted. This is fundamental and no systematic development can be 

 made until this is done. Allowing then that we have a known variety 

 adapted to soil and climatic conditions under which we are operating and 

 knowing further the weaknesses and strength of the particular soil on 

 which- the crop is to be grown, the first step is accomplished and next 

 comes the preparation of the seed for seeding. 



We have found from our own experience after repeated trials that 

 the matter of grading seed is not of such great importance as many 

 believe. While it is an important thing that seed be graded in order to 

 eliminate weed seeds and immature grains, there is not the large difference 



