121 



On the proposition of Professor Johannsen, who characterised 

 him as an ideal chairman, the delegates agreed that a hearty vote 

 of thanks should be accorded to Sir Lawrence Weaver for his 

 services in organising and presiding over the deliberations of the' 

 Congress. 



The business meetings of the Congress then concluded. 



SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS PRESENTED TO THE 

 CONGRESS, BUT NOT READ. 



Investigations of Agricultural Seeds with special reference to 

 Conditions in Japan. 



BY 



De. m. kondo. 



Director of the Ohara Institute for Agricultural Research, Kurashiki, 



Japan. 



It is hardly necessary to state that seed testing is very important 

 in reference to the problen;j of. crop improvement. Properly executed, 

 seed testing affords the means of avoiding much expense and annoyance 

 if this work be done before seeds are purchased in large quantities. Duiing 

 the past fifty years seed testing has become an established practice in 

 most countries of Europe and in America. I regret to state, howeveri^ 

 that seed-testing on a large scale has not become a generally established 

 practice in Japan, for the following reasons : — 



In Japan, animal industry has remained undeveloped, and farm 

 animals are relatively few in number; they are, moreover, largely fed on 

 rice straw and on grass from the fields and slopes. Forage crops, as such, are 

 grown only on a very small scale, or in some regions not at all, and, not being 

 in demand, seeds of forage crops are rarely offered for sale. In Europe 

 and in America the testing of forage crop seeds forms the larger part of 

 the seed testing industry. However, in Japan the growing of vegetables 

 forms a large part of the agricultural industry, and, consequently, the' 

 demand for vegetable seeds is great. The testing of vegetable seeds 

 should, therefore, be an important matter, but each individual farmer's, 

 need for vegetable seeds is always small, and it is impracticable to test 

 an indefinite number of small lots of seeds. Thus, it has so happened that 

 seed testing has not as yet been developed in Japan. It is evident, how- 

 ever, that in the future, through associations of farmers and gardeners,, 

 seeds will be purchased on a co-operative basis. This system of pur- 

 chasing, which is already carried on to some extent, will enable the 

 co-operative societies to have their seeds properly tested. 



An International Seed Testing Conference was held in Copenhagen,. 

 Denmark, in July, 1921, which was attended by specialists from many 

 countries of Europe and America. Although invited to attend this Con- 

 ference, I was unable to accept the invitation. A second conference is 

 to be held in London in 1924. While I am personally much interested 

 in the seed testing conferences, I am as yet scarcely in a position to con- 

 tribute materially to the meetings, for, as explained above, seed testing 

 is yet in its infancy in Japan. 



In view of the facts that agricultiu'al and garden seeds offered for salei 

 in Japan are frequently not true to name, are often impure, and fre- 

 quently present a very low percentage of germination, it is evident that 

 seed testing will, in the near future, occupy an important place in Japanese^ 



