196 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1287 



our state seed and weed laws and in the 

 activity of tlie forces represented by tiieni, to 

 include proper control of seed crop production 

 and of seed and grain distribution. 



Present Status of Seed Production, Crop- 

 ping and Marketing of Cereals. — ^In the line 

 of cereal cropping and marketing we are not 

 progressing as fast as the growth of our 

 population calls for. The increase in popu- 

 lation and of the population of the world, 

 even in peace time, calls for a marked in- 

 crease in cereal crop production. This in- 

 creased demand has brought the total acre- 

 age of the wheat crop in the United States 

 close to the maximum acreage at which 

 labor is available for its production, and, what 

 is worse, has reached such a high annual acre- 

 age in the chief regions of wheat culture that 

 it is becoming extremely diiEcult to plan a 

 rotation which will give suiBcient improve- 

 ment in the sanitary status of the soil as to 

 crop refuse as to allow of seed improvement. 

 In spite of our knowledge in the matters of 

 sanitary cereal cropping no consistent steps 

 are taken to bring about such uniformity and 

 continuity as may be likely to tend to im- 

 provement either in the seed quality used in 

 bulk, from year to year, or in crop quality. 



These conditions result from: (1) The fail- 

 ure of our educational campaigns to prevent 

 the constant cropping of the soil to one crop 

 or its close disease infected cereal relations, 

 and (2) the failure to hold varieties up to the 

 standards of purity necessary to meet crop- 

 ping and marketing needs. In the chief areas 

 of cereal production, whether we mean wheat, 

 oats, barley or corn, constant cropping prevail 

 as against constant processes of sanitary crop 

 rotation. Particularly in wheat, barley and 

 oats cropping, the chief methods of produc- 

 tion violate all the rules relative to standard- 

 ized seeds more commonly than they are prac- 

 tised. Here the large acreage producers and 

 the elevators and processes of marketing, speed- 

 ily undo all the ideas of crop sanitation and 

 grain standardization. At least, they speed- 

 ily bring the entire mass to an equilibriima of 

 minimvim yield and uniformity of admixtures. 

 As the country elevator furnishes the chief 



supply of seed for the general cropped areas, 

 an area of wheat does not represent one of one 

 variety but of several and of many types of 

 infectious diseases which accumulate in seed 

 and soil. In other words, we have no reliable 

 basis of holding a crop to standardization; 

 and the work of each cereal crop improver 

 and public educator on breeding dies with 

 him. As to the truth of this, one could cite 

 many instances as WeUman, Haynes and 

 Saunders. 



These are strong assertions but are easily 

 maiutained to the satisfaction of any person 

 who knows field and market conditions. In 

 the corn states, corn culture is so overdone 

 in large districts that the soil and seed is so 

 contaminated with Fusarial types of fungi and 

 other corn root and seed infecting organisms 

 that the seed is generally reduced in vitality 

 and the soil is so infected that in spite of the 

 cultivation which is a necessity in that crop, 

 good disease-free seed often fails to properly 

 germinate in good fertile soil. This is but 

 the story of the cotton crop, the flax crop and 

 the wheat crop over again. 



The Way Out. — Without attempting to fur- 

 ther argue the matter, I propose in every 

 cereal-producing state a law authorizing seed, 

 field crop inspection, seed certification, seed 

 standardization and seed sales lists, all to be 

 done under supervision of an officer who holds 

 his position not through local or political ap- 

 pointment, but because of his position as an 

 investigator and educator associated with and 

 directed through the proper educational board. 

 The law should be of such scope as to afford 

 the basis for proper educational propaganda 

 which would come as a necessary adjunct of a 

 law which should carry sufficient funds to allow 

 of demonstrations and field work in the laying 

 out of seed plots for standardization work. 

 It should carry sufficient funds to allow of 

 proper survey of every township so that there 

 should be at least a local supply of seeds 

 grown which may be looked upon by the resi- 

 dents of that tovsmship as standard stuff of 

 a given variety, and so inspected that it is 

 reasonably free from the infectious diseases 

 characteristic of the crop. The law should be 



