6S 



Jenkins and Wernicke, who had visited Dr. Nohhe's laboratory at Tharand, and 

 had become familiar with the work he was carrying on there. 



In the succeeding years, Dr. LeDoux in North Carolina and Dr. Wm. J. Beal 

 in Michigan pointed out the importance of seed testing. Dr. Chas. E. Bessey at the 

 University of Nebraska, appreciating the importance of this practical application of botanical 

 training, directed the attention of his students to this field. Through the personal influence 

 of Dr. Bessey and Dr. Beal, more students of the University of Nebraska and of the 

 Michigan Agricultural College than of all other institutions in the United States have 

 become trained workers in this iield. The work of these two men laid the foundation 

 for seed testing in this country and kept it before the public during the next fifteen 

 or twenty years. 



A student and assistant to Dr. Beal, the late Gilbert H. Hicks, in 1896 organized 

 seed testing as a definite line of investigations in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. Through publications, addresses and the preparation and distribution of 

 authentic sets of seeds,, as well as through testing seeds for farmers and seedsmen, 

 Hicks carried on a vigorous campaign of education. From this time, seed testing was 

 taken up by more and more of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Agricultural 

 Colleges. They undertook the testing of seeds for farmers and seed dealers, issued bulletins- 

 of information as to the quality of agricultural seeds on sale and pointed out the abuses 

 in the seed trade which were detrimental to agriculture. The work started by Hicks has 

 been carried on by the United 'States Department of Agriculture, where not only seeds 

 passing in domestic trade have been analyzed, but the quality of our imports has been 

 carefully studied. 



In 1906, approximately one million pounds of imported low-grade red clover seed 

 examined, contained only forty-three per cent of pure live seed, and • two hundred and 

 seventy-five thousand pounds of imported low-grade alfalfa seed contained only forty-four 

 per cent of pure live seed. 



The Constitution of the United States distinguishes sharply between the powers of 

 the Federal Government and of the individual States in regulating commerce, the Federal 

 Government being given control over trade between individual States and trade with 

 foreign countries, while the individual States may regulate trade within each State. This 

 division of authority permits wide variation between laws governing the same line of trade 

 in different States without reference to what regulations the Federal Government may 

 establish governing interstate traffic. 



In 1897, Maine was the first State to enact a law regulating the sale of agricultural 

 seeds. This early law, however, did not take into account the important question of 

 germination. Other States followed slowly with laws differing radically from each other; 

 one requiring only a statement of the year of growth, and .another prohibiting the sale 

 of seed containing the seeds of a particularly noxious weed. 



The value of greater uniformity in State laws was soon apparent, as was the 

 necessity for restricting the quality of seeds brought into the United States from 

 foreign countries. 



At a conference of State and Federal Agricultural ofecials in November 1896, a 

 committee was appointed to formulate uniform regulations for seed testing in the United 

 States. These have since been revised and reissued from time to time. 



The United States Department of Agriculture in 1904 was authorized to purchase 

 forage-plant seeds to examine them and to publish the names of the dealers with the 

 analyses when such seeds were found to be adulterated or misbranded. The result of 

 this informational service has been to greatly reduce the sale of adulterated and misbranded 

 forage-crop (grasses and clovers) seeds in the United States. This informational service, 

 together with the State laws, has been largely responsible for the establishment by al 

 of the large seed dealers of their own seed testing laboratories where they make tests 

 of the seeds they are handling. 



