GOOD SEED 



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lieve it is all right because we have bought seed from it be- 

 fore, and if it sells good tomato seed, cabbage seed is all right. 

 Don't be too sure about this. Last summer a reputable 

 seedsman came to State College and expressed a special in- 

 terest in our strain tests of cabbage. We took him to the 

 experimental plot. He commented on the various strains. 

 After a while we came to the abominable strain I have men- 

 tioned, and he said, ''Look at this strain. Isn't that an out- 

 rage? From whose seed was this row grown?" We said, 

 ''Do you really want to know? Well, that is your seed." 

 That such poor cabbage should be grown from his seed was 

 beyond his comprehension. We told him, "Yes, that is your 

 seed. We have planted it for the last five or six years. There 

 is no possibility of mistake. Results have tallied up every 

 year." 



Remember, there is no better seed house in Philadelphia 

 than the house this man represented. And the house paid 

 twenty-five cents more a pound to get this seed. I do not 

 want to be misunderstood, for I am a good friend of the 

 honest seedsmen and I could mention many seedsmen in whom 

 I have confidence. But here is the trouble. We, as com- 

 mercial growers, have not been willing to pay the price neces-v 

 sary to produce as good seed as the careful grower may pro-, 

 duce on his own ground. Is this not true? There are excep-. 

 tions, of course, but the rank and file of the commercial' 

 growers of vegetables are not willing to pay high prices. 

 Seedsmen, therefore, produce seed on a large scale and sell 

 it at low prices, because commercial growers demand such 

 prices. 



Have you ever been on a cabbage seed farm when the 

 growers are roguing in the fall of the year? What do they 

 do? Here is a plant that is rather off type and they discard 

 it. Perhaps ten per cent, of the plants are thrown away. 



Saving Seed. 



But how does the commercial grower do if he wants to 

 save his own seed? Instead of discarding ten per cent, he 

 finds perhaps one plant in a thousand or more that satisfies 

 his ideal, and he saves the seed from this plant. Most of the 

 seedsmen are doing the very best they can, but intelligent 



