j Stokes Seed Farms Qdmpany, MoQRestown,-New Jersey ] 



Our System of Seed Production 



METHODS FOLLOWED FOR SEED IMPROVEMENT 



NEVER in the history of the seed business has the work of seed improvement been so fundamental to 

 the success of the seedsman. Never has the vegetable-grower been so exacting in his demands on the 

 seedsman for improved stocks. The vegetable-grower has passed the experimental stage. He demands 

 assurance that he is buying the best and most highly developed of standard types, and cares httle about 

 a seedsman's "new variety." 



These facts bring us face to face with the problem of how to secure stocks which can be absolutely guaranteed 

 to develop into true and standard types. There are two practical methods of accomphshing these resuhs and 

 methods which every seed-seller should be practising. The first is to have the seed grown where it can be watc^ied, 

 from sowing until maturity. Study and learn to know the best plants, as Hve-stock breeders learn to know their 

 best animals. Discard all inferior plants and those which tend to degenerate back into inferior ancestors. Observe 

 the crops for the heaviest-yielding plants, plants which are most disease-resistant, and plants maturing uniformly, 

 or, if an early variety, watch for the early-maturing fruits. From this crop, which has been especially cared for 

 and studied, the next step is to select the best plants in the entire field from which the seed is saved for future 

 breeding purposes. The next year this seed is planted, and from it a superior standard is set, and so the selecting 

 work continues year after year. A decided improvement in type standards must be the result. 



The second method of improvement is not so perfect, as it necessarily must be out of the careful observance of 

 the seedsman, this due to the fact that some forms of seed require certain climatic conditions for their best maturity. 

 The method followed in this case is to grow the stock "seed" at home in order to establish a definite type. Seed so 

 produced and selected for a certain tj^pe is called stock seed. This stock seed is sent to the growers in various parts 

 of the world, and the entire crop is produced from this seed. Seed thus grown must necessarily approach very 

 closely the standard of the stock seed. 



Realizing, therefore, the importance of breeding and selecting this stock seed to the very best type, we have 

 on Windermoor Farm small patches of various varieties from which we select the superior plants and fruits, saving 

 the seed from these only. This stock seed so selected is sent to our foreign or distant growers in the United States, 

 and from it we procure a general crop the following year to offer to our trade. Both of the above methods are being 

 followed at Windermoor even at this early date. True, we have not made any wonderful advances, but we realize 

 more and more that without this sort of work, conscientiously and patiently carried out, we can never hope to be 

 to our customers what every seedsman should be, — his true-and-tried adviser and friend. 



spinach seed drying-trays A section of our flower trials 



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