114 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1309 



an organic part of any agricultural college be- 

 cause the crop improvement associations are 

 producing and selling associations. 

 , First, before one of tbese associations can 

 work, some plant breeder must Have spent 

 years purifying old varieties, or breeding -up 

 pew ones. In eitber case the varieties to be 

 tested must have originated from a single se- 

 lected plant where thousands are usually se- 

 lected and tested. The work of variety testing 

 piay continue for several years, and usually 

 does, before a superior variety is located. 

 The next stage is to try the new variety in 

 various parts of the state. If it is generally 

 found superior to local varieties it is time for 

 an association to begin. 



Thus before a crop improvement association 

 can work, a superior variety must exist. It 

 may have been produced in the same or another 

 state but must have been found superior by lo- 

 cal testing. 



To distribute a new variety in small quanti- 

 ties without control, always means that farm- 

 ers lose it by allowing it to be mixed with local 

 varieties. The agricultural college can, with 

 the aid of county agricultural agents, see to it 

 that a new variety is kept pure until it leaves 

 the farm where it is being increased. But 

 if the grower is to continue to produce 

 pedigreed seed and any considerable number 

 of growers are to be interested, the producer 

 must be able to obtain a higher price for 

 this seed than is paid in the open market. 

 He has seen to it that the land was free from 

 other grains and noxious weeds. He has 

 treated his grain for smut. He has cleaned 

 his drill. He has pulled weeds and gone to 

 considerable extra expense. All this trouble 

 must be paid for. It is true that farmers are 

 glad to grow a high-producing grain, that they 

 may produce more bushels. They are also 

 willing to grow a grain of higher quality if 

 they can obtain a better price. But, as a ride, 

 they are not willing to produce seed for other 

 folks without a profit. They are business 

 men not philanthropists. 



To find a market for the new seed grain, 

 there has to be a selling agency of some kind. 

 This agency is taking the form of a crop im- 



provement association. This is a farmers or- 

 ganization in every state where the movement 

 has gone far enough to be of substantial value 

 to the state. Usually the extension specialist 

 in farm crops is the controlling agent. He is 

 often the secretary of the association but not 

 as an officer of the agricultural college. In 

 Michigan he sees to it that the fields of grain 

 are inspected while in head and before har- 

 vest. The farmer whose field passes inspection 

 also submits a recleaned sample of the grain 

 to the secretary. If his grain is acceptable the 

 grower receives the shipping tags of the asso- 

 ciation. The grower certifies on the shipping 

 tag that the seed conforms to the state seed 

 laws and to the sample submitted to the asso- 

 ciation for inspection. Also if these points 

 are not found true he agrees to refund the 

 purchase price. 



To illustrate how pedigreed grains can be 

 taken care of, let me mention some Michigan 

 experience. A bushel of Rosen Rye was sent 

 to Mr. Carlton Horton at Albion in 1912. We 

 now estimate there were 400,000 acres of Rosen 

 Rye in Michigan in 1919. A peck of Red Rock 

 wheat was sown by Mr. John Odell on a half 

 of his garden patch in 1913. Mr. Odell lives 

 about seven miles south of Allegan in Trow- 

 bridge Township. He grew YJ bushels of Red 

 Rock in 1914 and sowed seven acres. He had 

 this seed for sale in 1915, but could not have 

 interested his neighbors if it had not been for 

 the county agricultural agent, the miller and 

 the banker, nor could this seed have continued 

 to be kept pure and sold for seed had it not 

 been for the Michigan Crop Improvement 

 Association. However, I personally inspected 

 over three hundred acres in 1917 that con- 

 tained less 1 per cent, of other varieties and 

 almost no weeds. All this came from the peck 

 of Red Rock sent to Mr. Odell four years be- 

 fore. In 1919 there were about 60,000 acres 

 of Red Rock in Michigan. Several others of 

 our breeding products have likewise been 

 taken care of. 



Frank A. Spragg 



Plant Beekdee, 

 Michigan Agricultural College 



