August 30, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



199 



done at any time before the same is sold off 

 tlie farm on wiiicli it is grown, but tbe proper 

 time for such inspection is when the grain is 

 in head, when even a novice in agronomic or 

 botanical work need make no mistake as to va- 

 riety and the percentage of possible admixture 

 and the possibility of disease infections, as 

 scab, rust, ergot, smut, etc. A certificate 

 should follow final inspection of the seed in 

 the pure seed laboratory following harvest 

 and threshing. A state list should be pub- 

 lished showing the name of the grower, his 

 address, the variety and amount of seed saved 

 for sale as seed and its authorization should 

 be based upon the certificates as issued. Such 

 state laws should specify various grades of 

 improved grain as " bulk seed of sufficient 

 purity for use in special commercial processes, 

 or in general cropping as improved seed, or as 

 pedigreed seed, etc." 



Suffice to say that this state listing necessi- 

 tates official records of pedigrees and makes 

 possible standardization and retention of va- 

 rietal standards of quality. The whole proc- 

 ess tends to form a proper educational basis 

 for seed and crop improvement. Finally, the 

 lists put any man who wishes to use the par- 

 ticular seed in touch with the man who is 

 able to provide it. Thus good seed gets used 

 on the land. The grower and the public is 

 assured against having the work of proper 

 tillage and proper crop rotation destroyed or 

 set aside through the use of false unknown 

 or deteriorated varieties. The whole process 

 tends to insure final crop standardization and 

 is the necessary foundation for final establish- 

 ment of marketing standards. 



In ISTorth Dakota the process here outlined 

 is not a matter of theory but has been in 

 operation on a part of the crops since 1909, 

 and quite extensively in operation since 1911. 

 Some hundreds of thousands of bushels of 

 seed have been sold under the state list. We 

 have made a beginning step on the right road 

 looking toward cereal crop improvement. 

 When a farmer or wholesale seed merchant 

 once becomes imbued with the idea of stand- 

 ardized seed of a known quality, sold under 

 certification, and if necessary under lead seal. 



he at once sees the necessity of following 

 other processes of crop improvement which 

 follow as natural corollaries, thus one will 

 not be apt to put such seed into the lands 

 which are weed infected, disease-infected, or 

 contaminated with other sorts of grains of the 

 same kind, or junk the bulk product with in- 

 ferior stuff on the commercial market. Im- 

 provements in lines of tillage and crop rotation 

 must and will follow upon seed standardization 

 as naturally as day follows sunrise. At present 

 there is no real necessity of much improve- 

 ment in tillage and crop rotation methods; 

 for the seed used, very often, is of such qual- 

 ity from a sanitary and breeding standpoint, 

 as to thoroughly offset any improvement that 

 might be expected from better tillage methods, 

 and improved methods in soil sanitation. 



h. l. bolley 

 Agricultueal College, N. D. 



A PLEA FOR COURSES IN PHYSICAL 



MEASUREMENTS FOR STUDENTS OF 



CHEMISTRY AND RELATED 



SCIENCES 



It has been my privilege during the past 

 two years to visit many institutional and in- 

 dustrial research laboratories in various sci- 

 ences and I have had the opportunity of talk- 

 ing with many workers in these laboratories. 

 Before that time I had spent a number of 

 years in teaching and research in physics. 

 Eecollections of that experience, together with 

 observations which I have since been able to 

 make, have forcibly brought to my mind cer- 

 tain convictions which I desire to express, 

 in the hope that such expression may con- 

 tribute to establishing a basis for definite 

 progress in certain kinds of research. 



What is here set dovm. may be common 

 realization, and it may have been expressed 

 before. If so, this will emphasize previous 

 remarks upon the subject; and such emphasis 

 seems to me to be much needed. 



It is probably the experience of many sci- 

 entific workers at some time or other to feel 

 that they are much handicapped by being not 

 sufficiently familiar with the methods and the 



