GOOD SEED 



115 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 



GOOD SEED. 

 R. L. Watts, State College, Pennsylvania. 



The chairman of the meeting has told you how important 

 it is for market gardeners and truckers to use good seed. I 

 feel, however, that it is unnecessary for me to present argu- 

 ments to show the importance of planting the very best seed. 

 But it is in order to say, that the vegetable growers of this 

 country are decidedly behind the general farmers with re- 

 gard to this proposition. In Pennsylvania, nearly every corn 

 grower realizes the importance of planting the best seed that 

 can be obtained. They know very well that if seed is pur- 

 chased from the dealers that name the lowest prices, there 

 will be no certainty whatever of their getting a good crop. 

 Not so with the vegetable growers. Hundreds of them do 

 not hesitate to place orders for the seeds that they want with 

 the house where they can be secured at the lowest price. 

 The rank and file of the commercial vegetable growers in 

 Pennsylvania do not use as much intelligence in procuring 

 good seeds as do the corn growers of our state, and I think 

 this is true, to a certain extent at least, in the State of New 

 York. 



In general farm cropping, a great deal is said, these times, 

 about farm management. Your own institution of Cornell 

 University occupies a prominent position in this matter. But, 

 how about garden management? Are we not behind the 

 general farmers with reference to the skilful, scientific man- 

 agement of our commercial gardens? Are we not behind 

 them in selecting seeds with a view to increasing yields and 

 improving quality? I believe that we are. 



I need not take very much time today to give examples of 

 gardeners here and there, all over this country, who are mak- 

 ing splendid progress because of unusual care in the produc- 

 tion and selection of seed. 



A few years ago, I met a turnip grower in New Jersey, 

 at a County Fair, exhibiting a large number of turnips. Look- 

 ing over those exhibits, I found one lot that ran unusually 



