198 



SCIENCE 



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



is that all die out. Through this system or 

 utter lack of system there has accumulated an 

 enormous number of synonyms, and numerous 

 varieties mixed and jumbled into junk lots 

 and misbranded kinds and the nation quarrels 

 as to how such cereals may possibly be graded 

 for commercial purposes. These methods with 

 the craze for introduction of new kinds and 

 the accompanying fallacies that varieties run 

 out have so beset our agricultural public and 

 plant breeding workers that many able men 

 are spending their time on the study of syn- 

 onyms and the separation of varieties which, 

 were the tasks accomplished, would be lost 

 within three years should they cease their 

 labors. 



Even in potato culture there are getting to 

 be so many varieties and so much disease con- 

 tamination in the chief potato districts that 

 one can scarce load a car of a single variety 

 reasonably fit for use as seed or even com- 

 mercial marketing without hand selection and 

 disinfection. What then must be the status 

 with reference to wheat, oats and barley? 



The average person seldom sees anything 

 smaller than potatoes and walnuts accurately, 

 and this is literally true in regard to cereals. 

 Some claim there is no necessity for such 

 work because the national grain grades will 

 eventually take care of this matter or should 

 take care of it. ISTothing can be farther from 

 the fact. Nothing can be farther from possi- 

 bility; for the national grades do not recog- 

 nize variety. All hard spring wheat looks 

 alike to the elevator and commercial man re- 

 gardless of the variety. In milling and for 

 feed purposes in actual fact, it should make 

 little difference. These should not concern 

 themselves with variety further than the 

 matter of kind. For commerce and manu- 

 facturing national grades are an essential 

 necessity in order that all may be properly 

 safeguarded. They should recognize qualities 

 as hard and soft, damp and dry, bright and 

 mouldy wheats, etc., but they have little con- 

 cern with variety. If they should, under 

 present conditions there could not be con- 

 structed sufficient elevator bins to separate the 

 varieties in any large cropping district. In 



fact they do not. The fact that a sample of 

 wheat is of no. 1 cereal quality as " no. 1 hard 

 spring," does not at all insure its seed value. 

 It may bear all the weed infection, disease in- 

 fection and types of wheat admixtures, to 

 which that particular region is heir, and the 

 more the national grading system attempts 

 to separate varieties in the grading system, 

 the more certainly will their processes be 

 damaging to agriculture. 



The seed proposition must stand on its own 

 merits and must be recognized as separate 

 from the manufacturing proposition. If we 

 care for crop improvement we can not allow 

 the seed standards in cereal cropping to be 

 based upon national standards for flour and 

 feed manufaetury. 'Nor can we as agrono- 

 mists allow those in charge of the national 

 grades to claim without rough challenge that 

 they are protecting the varieties. As long as 

 our farmers believe or are taught to believe 

 that they have some protection from this 

 source it will be possible for our wholesale 

 seed houses to buy " no. 1 northern spring " 

 or whatever the designation may be and sell 

 it back to our farmers for seed as a basis for 

 crop production. 



Field Seed Crop Inspection. — The process of 

 proper field crop inspection for seed produc- 

 tion and seed standardization is a very simple 

 one when properly authorized and put into 

 operation. It can be done under any con- 

 scientious educational official administration 

 of the state and can be continuous from one 

 generation of ofiicers to another without loss 

 of the underlying methods and records. The 

 natural home of such crop inspection would 

 be associated with the work of the agricultural 

 college and experiment station, where experts 

 should exist or where it should be possible to 

 develop experts in seed and crop standardiza- 

 tion. The work can very naturally and proi)- 

 erly be centered around the work of the pure 

 seed office of the state. In its essentials it 

 consists in the sending of competent inspec- 

 tors to inspect the growing crop of those who 

 claim to be growing seeds for sale for sowing 

 purposes or for special commercial enterprises. 

 This inspection of the crop or stock may be 



