The Somerset reporter., 1903-07-09
ROOT CROP SEEDS.
How and where They Are Grown
and Why They Are often Poor.

and Why They Are often Poor.
The seed division of the Canadian
department of agriculture offer sug-
gestions Of much interest to root grow
ers. According to Chief q. ii. Clark of
the seed division, a few farmers in
Canada make speciality of growing
root crop seed, but practically the
whole amount of such seed offered in
the trade is imported from Europe and
is grown in France. Germany and Eng
land. a favorable climate and cheap
labor have made these countries the
seed gardens of the world.
Turnips, swedes. mangels and car
rots are all biennial plants-that is,
they store up nouriShment in the root
during the whole OF the first year and
use that store of food for the produc-
ton of seed the second and final year
of their life. Most of our domesticated
plants have been evolved from Wild
types through long years of selection,
cultivation and cross fertilization. The
original wild types were usually an
nuals. producing seed the first year,
and there is a tendency among all i'm
proved plants to revert rapidly to the
old unimproyed types whenever they
are deprived of careful attention to Sc
lection and cultivation.
Canadian farmers have not fully rec
ognized that the value of root crop
seeds is far from depending on their
Vitality alone. 1t is even more i'm
portant that they be taken from care
fully grown and selected stocks. We
seldom see a field of roots that are uni
formly true to type and free from
abnormal growth of top, large necks
and i'll shaped, prongy roots.
The best quality of seed is produced
from selected and transplanted roots.
Seed Of turnips and swedes is pro-
duced in quantity in this manner in
the north of Scotland The climate of
Scotland, like that Of Canada, Is such
that root crop seeds can only be sue
cessfully produced by harvesting the
roots before winter and transplanting
them the following spring. The bulk
of the seed Of these crops, which Is
imported for the Canadian trade, Is
grown in France and the south of Eng
land, where the climate Is such that
the roots may remain unharvested
through the winter and produce seed
the following year. Some of the more
reliable seed growers in these coun-
tries exercise great deal of care in
the production of their stocks. They
supply seeds from their own selected
stocks to small farmers, who grow
quantities of seed for them under con-
tract. The best quality of seed offered
In the Canadian trade is grown in this
way. There is, however, evidence to
show that a great deal of the seed of
these crops offered In Canada Is of
much inferior quality. Canadian farm
ers have demanded cheap seeds with
out any guarantee as to quality, and
the seedsmen have simply tried to
meet the demand. A great deal of the
root crop seed used in Canada Is grown
by small, irresponsible European farm
ers whose chief object Is to obtain a
maximum yield of seed Independent of
llS uudHly. LII lut grow ing VI lHSSc
stocks it Is a common practice to SOW
late in the season after an early crop
has been harvested from the land.
Young plants thus produced are in
many cases not thinned and do not
grow to a reasonable size during the
first season. From crop of this sort
a very large amount of top is produced
and large quantity Of seed obtained
per acre at II minimum cost Until the
consumers learn that 1t pays to use
only seed that is taken from selected
and transplanted roots grown In a eli
mate similar to that where the seed is
wanted for use the quantity of home
grown stock offered in the trade Will
be extremely limited. 1t therefore APP
pears that growers of root crops will
find 1t to their advantage to purchase
only seeds from extra selected stocks,
no matter what the price may be, or,
better still, grow their own seed from
the best and most typical roots raised
on their own farms.