112 



The matters of commerce in seeds and seed testing are inseparable. 

 Seed laws designed to control the sale of seeds m.ust be enforced, and 

 upon a practical basis. An unenforced seed law is often Worse than 

 no law at all, since it often handicaps good intentions and puts a premium 

 upon falsity. In this connection it seems to be quite generally conceded 

 that the best interests of all are met when the technical, analytical 

 work of seed analysis is quite apart or separated from the control or law- 

 enforcement phase. We strive to insist that seeds be sold in a manner 

 satisfactory to both buyer and seller. Purity, viability and weed-seed 

 content must be given in intelligible terms. Provenance, or origin, 

 are all-important in the case of clover and alfalfa, and some other kinds of 

 seed — and this information must be insisted upon. The person who, either 

 through negligence, carelessness or intent, loses or disguises the facts 

 regarding origin or provenance in the essential cases is a great menace to 

 agricultural welfare and should be most promptly exposed. To speak 

 of the sale of seeds of known variety, high purity and viability, and of 

 known origin, one at once thinks of the trade in seed or the seedsmen. 

 The seed trade has unlimited opportunities to render a great service to 

 agricultural Welfare, and if, therefore, there are unethical practices or 

 abuses in the sale of seeds which have sprung up under the pressure of 

 competition or habit, and which have brought about the need of drastic 

 seed laws, they can be corrected if the trade itself will but apply the 

 Golden Rule in its own conduct and correct the wrong within itself. 

 Character in the commerce in seeds cannot be built by laws. It will 

 come as the sum total of the moral fibre of the individuals engaged 

 therein. 



Seed-testing work in America apparently has its handicaps, as has 

 proved to be the case elsewhere. In altogether too many cases, the 

 salary offered is not sufficient to attract and hold competent trained workers 

 and, as a result, there is a lack of analysts of the type which seed analysis 

 and testing required. There Ls also in some cases a lack of appreciation 

 or realization of the great importance of this work. These and other 

 circumstances are to be regretted, since the seed-testing staff should be a 

 well-trained one, sufficiently remunerated to ensure its permanency, 

 and it should be unhampered in the working out and pushing vigorously 

 forward of a policy based upon the agricultural needs of the country which 

 it serves. We believe that seed testing as a profession and as a great 

 pubHc service project is rapidly becoming established upon a more or less 

 uniform basis and is taking the large place it is destined to fill. 



While I may have the opportunity later during our pleasant visits 

 to tell you personally of some of the things which the North American 

 analysts are doing, I wish to tell you collectively that it was another 

 desire which caused me to travel all the way to fair England. I wanted 

 to exchange greetings with you who have so kindly co-operated with us 

 in the past in so many ways and bespeak a new and fresh mutual under- 

 standing and co-operation for the future, for it is only upon international 

 friendship and good-wUl that our efforts will be enhanced and co-operation 

 permanently built. 



Dr. Gentner submitted the following paper on Plant Diseases 

 and followed this with a lecture in German on the same subject, 

 illustrated by lantern slides. In introducing his subject Dr. 

 Gentner mentioned that in 1841 Professor Henslow lectured in 

 Cambridge on the various diseases by which seeds are attacked, 

 and that he regarded it as an honour to be able to speak in the 

 same town and on the same theme. 



