August 30, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



195 



was tinneeessary and that everything could be 

 done by education, but who among us will 

 contend that such criticism or opposition was 

 well founded? 



ISTeyertheless, when we strike the matter of 

 farming processes and indicate that there 

 should be sanitary laws affecting farm pro- 

 cesses, officially supervised by state officers 

 non-amenable to politics, etc., there are many 

 who object and say that such laws are un- 

 necessary and that we should "rely on educa- 

 cational methods," indicating that too much 

 supervision will bring about stagnation, etc. 

 Then there are others who are sure to call 

 such laws " sumptuary," etc., tending to pre- 

 vent individual freedom of action and toward 

 depression of business operations. 



In years ijast we have gone so far in this 

 laissez faire line of non-control of farming 

 matters that any approach to supervision by 

 the state of any farming work is sure to be 

 resented by some line of business, even though 

 it meets with favor in the eyes of those for 

 whom it is intended to directly help. Thus, 

 for example, there are few of us but can re- 

 member the strenuous efforts to resist fertilizer 

 control lines of work, and the strong oppo- 

 sition to enactment of horticultural and ento- 

 mijlogical supervision for control of insect 

 and fungus pests, and to the enactment of 

 simple seed inspection laws. Even now, in 

 the work of plant disease control, it is ap- 

 parent that there are yet those who insist that 

 the state should keep out; that there should 

 be no supervisory laws affecting control work. 

 When, for example, but lately it was pro- 

 posed that the states and nation should at- 

 tempt control of wheat rust through barberry 

 eradication, there were not a few who should 

 know most as to the reasons for the necessity 

 of such eradication, who spoke out freely and 

 feeling in the advocacy of a " campaign of 

 education " and as though we had not had 

 that campaign for nigh on to two centuries. 

 And now, if one should but propose compul- 

 sory seed treatment for cereals for prevention 

 of smut and control of scab and similar cereal 

 diseases, or a law simply to prevent continu- 

 ous cropping of the land so that there might 



not be a continuous accumulation of such 

 diseases in the soil and seed of special crops, 

 there would be many so-called " educated 

 men " who would throw up their hands in 

 feigned horror. Yet enactment of such soil 

 seed laws would be but a natural consequence 

 following upon years of investigation and es- 

 tablished knowledge relative to what should 

 be done in order to control such cereal dis- 

 eases. In other words, it would be but a 

 natural step toward carrying out present 

 knowledge of cereal control through sanitary 

 methods so that the work done may not be 

 continually and perpetually a loss through the 

 carelessness of ordinary marketing and farm- 

 ing processes. 



I discuss this phase of the sanitary question 

 as to soil and seed only to introduce the idea 

 of the necessity that the states attempt by law 

 to standardize seed quality through proper 

 methods of seed cropping and seed control. 



I propose the thought that many of our so- 

 called " educational campaigns " need a basis 

 of equitable law. One can not expect sani- 

 tary or proper planning to be carried out 

 merely on the suggestion of a professor from 

 the agricultural college or of an extension 

 worker if the carrying out of the processes 

 must be placed eternally upon the Utopian 

 basis that the man who does the work may 

 hope for some results but whether he does 

 or does not get them he should and is ex- 

 pected to do it so that his neighbor may 

 also prosper. Merely to recite to him that 

 the public should have the benefit of the 

 better crop that he will raise loses force after 

 a time except it be backed by an emergency 

 such as has come about under war conditions. 

 It is too great a strain on the word " loyalty " 

 to ask it, imless asked of all. In fact, the 

 work will not be done with sufficient unanim- 

 ity to give worth while results except it be 

 done by all continuously, year by year. The 

 proper basis for sanitation on the farm as to 

 crops is not different from in the home, fac- 

 tory and school. It should rest on equitable 

 law, educationally and equitably administered. 

 I believe that the first step in cereal crop 

 improvement rests in a further extension of 



