DETERIORATION OF SEED. 79 



work of my hiied workmen. I consider it a great mistake when a 

 farmer has half a dozen men employed on different parts of the farm 

 to use his own time in manual labor, because it is only by proper 

 direction and supervision that he can make the work of each man of 

 the fullest value. 



(Mr. H.) In relation to that matter of importing oats, Mr. Crozier, 

 I had recently a conversation with Mr. "Win, Saunders, Super- 

 intendent of the Experimental Department of the Agricultural 

 Bureau at Washington, in which he stated to me that he imported 

 from Scotland for his experiments, I think, a variety known as Hope- 

 toun oats, which averaged forty-four pounds per bushel. The first 

 year after sowing, the product deteriorated to forty pounds per 

 bushel; that product being sown the second year, deteriorated still 

 further to thirty-five pounds per bushel, which again being sown 

 was still further reduced to the normal condition of American oats 

 of thirty pounds, or less, per bushel. These facts suggest the query 

 whether it would not pay our farmers to import their seed oats, in 

 order to get this improved quality and product. In my opinion there 

 is no other way to do it; for no matter how carefully the selection of 

 seed is made, deterioration will take place when a crop is grown 

 under circumstances uncongenial to it, as is the case with oats in 

 nearly all parts of the United States and other warm climates, the 

 nature of the plant requiring a long season of growth, which can only 

 be had in cool, moist localities. A life-time spent in the practical 

 study of horticulture, which is near akin to agriculture, has forced 

 me to the conclusion that there is no such thing as the acclimatization 

 of plants. The maize of the American continent resists all attempts 

 to bring the crop to maturity in the climate of Great Britain, while 

 the oat gives 'comparatively abortive results when grown in our 

 half-tropical summers. Don't you think it would pay to import seed 

 oats from Britain, so as to gain an advantage in the weight and 

 product the first season here ? 



A. Yes; I think it would. I think imported seed could be sown 

 two seasons to advantage. I have had seed oats from Nova Scotia, 

 where the weight runs from thirty-eight to forty pounds per bushel, 

 and planted them side by side with oats which I raised myself, pre- 

 paring the ground in the same manner for both, and the Nova Scotia 

 oats produced from eight to ten bushels per acre more than the 

 common oats. Whether it was from the larger size of the imported 

 oats or the change of climate I am unable to say. Probably both 

 causes had something to do with it; for there it is well proven that 

 change of seed of almost any farm crop is advantageous. To sum up : 

 imported seed oats, costing even as much as $2 per bushel, will add 



