FOREWORD. 



The First International Seed-Testing Congress was held in 

 Hamburg from the 10th to 14th September, 1906, and the 

 Second took place in Munster and Wageningen from the 13th to 

 15th May, 1910. 



Professor A. Voigt of Hamburg was the leading spirit of both 

 these Conferences, and the papers were read and the discussions 

 were held in German. The object of these congresses was, 

 amongst others, to obtain uniform rules of analysis for the 

 various seed-testing stations, but no Association was formed and 

 no co-operative investigations or research took place during the 

 period between the CoiSerences. Reports of the proceedings wUl 

 be found in " Jahresbericht fiir angewandte Botanik," viz., in 

 Vierter Jahrgang 1906, pp. 211-347, and in Achter Jahrgang 

 1910, pp. 209-273, respectively. 



As a result of suggestions emanating from the EngUsh Ministry 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Third Congress was held in 

 Copenhagen in June, 1921. Delegates from sixteen countries took 

 part in that Conference, at which many seed-testing questions 

 of international importance were discussed. The Congress 

 resulted in the formation of the European Seed Testing Associa- 

 tion, the principal aim of which was to obtain greater uniformity 

 than had hitherto been the case in respect of analysis results at 

 the various seed-testing stations. The report of the Conference 

 in question, " Discussions at the International Seed Testing 

 Conference in Copenhagen, 6-10 June, 1921," may be obtained 

 upon application to the Director of the Danish State Seed Testing 

 Station at Copenhagen, price 3s. 9d. a copy. At that Conference 

 an invitation from the British Government that the Fourth 

 International Seed Testing Congress should be held in England 

 in 1924 was accepted. 



~ The following is a report of the proceedings of that Congress, 

 held at Cambridge from the 7th to the 12th July, 1924, at which 

 twenty-six countries were represented. In addition to the dis- 

 cussion of many important matters relating to seed testing, it 

 was decided to enlarge the scope of the European Seed Testing 

 Association formed at the Copenhagen Congress, to extend its 

 activities to all the countries of the world in which the testing 

 of seeds is practised, and to re-constitute it under the name of 

 the International Seed Testing Association. 



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