15 



The Work of the European Seed Testmg Association 1921-24. 



BY 



K. DORPH-PETERSEN, 



Director of the Danish State Seed Testing Station. 



After the European Seed Testing Association was formed at the Inter- 

 national Seed Testing Congress at Copenhagen in 1921, a Committee, 

 consisting of Director F. P. Bruijning, Wageningen, Director Dr. A. 

 Volkart, Zurich, and myself, was elected to direct the work of the Associa- 

 tion. Unfortunately, Dr. Bruijning passed away very shortly after this, 

 and the Association lost thereby a valuable supporter. Dr. Bruijning 

 carried out a very remarkable and self-dependent work of organisation 

 at the Seed Testing Station in Wageningen, a work with which I have 

 several times had the opportunity of familiarising myself. We will 

 remember him and his work on this occasion. At a meeting held in 

 Prague in September, 1921, the remaining members constituted them- 

 selves a committee of the whole, with Dr. Volkart as secretary. At 

 the urgent request of Dr. Volkart I assumed the chairmanship. We 

 agreed to endeavour to carry on the work until the Conference in 

 England in 1924, and to leave it to this Conference to elect a new 

 Committee. 



Planning of the Work. 



At the meeting in Prague the Committee agreed on the object of the 

 work, its lines of direction and its division. In the proposition submitted 

 by Sir Lawrence Weaver at the Congress in 1921 it is laid down that the 

 object of the Association should be a unification of the seed testing methods 

 in Europe and of the methods of expressing the results of analysis and the 

 quaUty of the seed analysed. Dr. Volkart and I agreed not to go too far 

 in the first-mentioned direction, as specially binding instructions would 

 scarcely be maintained, and also as it would be necessary to take into 

 consideration local conditions and the available power and means. It 

 might suffice to give the lines of direction for future work, supposing these 

 to be followed, the principal object being the attainment of uniform 

 results. The steps to be taken to obtain this should be left to the various 

 heads to choose ; the Committee should confine itself to giving information 

 when desired. In order to limit the work, this should comprise, 

 provisionally, only official seed testing stations. 



It was decided to divide the work so that Dr. Volkart should undertake 

 the execution of comparative investigations of provenance, whereas I 

 should undertake comparativepurity and germination tests, &c., and carry 

 on the correspondence with those Institutions which were, or intended to 

 be, members of the'European Seed Testing Association. 



Provenance Determinations. 



These are the hnes mainly followed since the meeting in Prague. Being 

 most experienced in respect to the question of provenance, Dr. Volkart — 

 whose station has for a nTimber of years played an important part in 

 respect to the determination of the origin of seed — ^has carried into effect 

 comparative provenance determinations. This question is recognised as 

 being one of the most difficult in connection with seed testing and is one 

 that requires considerable study and intense co-operation if positive 

 results are to be obtained. Dr. Volkart will read a paper on these 

 determinations on Wednesday, 9th July. 



Comparative Tests. 



Even before the Congress at Copenhagen, a series of "Referee" seed 

 samples (25) was distributed for analysis. In the report of this Congress, 



