310 Plant-Breeding 



entailed in producing pedigreed seed will not be ade- 

 quately paid for by the average American buyer. There 

 is probably much justification for this feeling. Two 

 things should be done to educate the buying public to the 

 importance of better seed and the justification for its 

 greater cost, and also to devise methods whereby this 

 seed may be more cheaply and economically produced. 

 The agricultural colleges through various channels are 

 doing much to solve these two difficulties. 



Work of the council of grain exchanges. The National 

 Council of Grain Exchanges is the associated body of the 

 various grain exchanges or boards of trade of this coun- 

 try. This organization is interested in a larger yield of 

 better grain. It has a crop improvement committee 

 which is very active in grain-improvement work, including 

 grain-breeding. This committee is conducting a very 

 extensive publicity campaign in an attempt to induce 

 farmers to use select seed and improve their crops. The 

 executive work is done by a secretary, who acts as general 

 manager, and an agronomist, who is an expert plant- 

 breeder and advises concerning the technical features of 

 the work, most of which is done through the county 

 agents. To aid in this work, the committee publishes a 

 monthly publication called The County Agent, a paper 

 filled with terse information concerning all phases of farm 

 improvement work. The secretary and agronomist have 

 large funds at their disposal, which are being used to bring 

 about concerted action by farming communities for the 

 improvement of seed grain. 



United States Department of Agriculture and state experi- 

 ment stations, The most methodical plant-breeding is 



