The Columbus journal., 1908-01-29

.N%W
W. N. HAYS.
There are three cardinal themes
which appeal to the interest-the self.
Interested the farmer: Crops. hogs
and cattle. Anything which relates d.
reetly to any Of thase vital topics IL
sure TO command tho willing ca OF
the man OF the soil. It II not strange.
therefore. that the professional swtnd-
ler who makes q business Of cheating
the farmer has recognized this fact
and made the most OF It
For many years the improved seed"
Swindle has been one Of the most suc-
cessful and II taking hundreds Of thou
sands Of dollars from the pockets OF
the farmers. Besides taking money
for something worthless or next
to worthless-it does the direct
damage Of planting hundreds OF
fields with seed inferior In germinat-
ing power or lacking in value per acre
Of the crop and Of undermining pop
ular confidence in the practical value
Of progressive work done by the agri-
cultural departments Of the national
and state governments-for too often
the seed swindlers claim IN endorse
ment by some department or some
person connected Herewith. There II
not an agricultural department which
has not placed the emphasis Of its
message to the farmer upon the great
gain in results to be had from tho
careful selection Of seed-whether In
corn. in the smaller grains. In cotton
or In grasses, clovers and the forage
crops.
In the light Of four years later q
man who would grossly overstate the
prospective yields Of q "billion-dollar
grass" not only securing the farmers
money, but inducing him to plant his
land to q crop less productive Of value
than the crop he would otherwise con-
tinue to grow, ID q business pirate.
The experiment stations and state
and United States departments Of az.
riculture, state horticulture societies.
field crop breeders societies. the
American Breeders association. and
similar organizations. = rapidly de-
veloping the testing Of standard. new.
" introduced and newly bred varie.
ties. so that they are able to advise
farmers which varieties to use in their
regular business planting.
The tree agent who induced the pio-
neer farmer to purchase from large
fruit pictures orchard trees in which
the family long hoped. but which
numbered the ground until the pio-
neer mother had brought up her fam.
lily and had gone to her reward. has q
mighty black spot in his record Of
deeds done. The seed firm which sold
my friend Clark Red top seed in which
Kentucky blue grass seed was mixed
for . permanent hay meadow far
north, made well nigh worthless large
areas Of peaty land situated where II
could not be pastured. but would have
permanently produced fine crops OF
timothy. The dealer was criminally
ignorant. because he was asked for
seed for q specific purpose. and he
put in the blue grass. which grows too
short to NOV for hay. but crowds out
the variety suited to cut for hay.
The nan who sold Burbank plums
IN . region 20 cold that they could not
stand the severe winters IL more gull.
~ than the man who steals your
purse. He gets . paltry e each for
trees that would have been valuable
elsewhere. but for this small consider.
alton he robs the farmer Of his time.
his land. Of his opportunity to uss
hardy plum trees. and even robs him
and his neiShbors Of their faith in the
possibilities Of family plum lot.
Our experiment station and depart.
ment plant men are rapidly learning
the seed and plant variety business.
They r not only learning how to
create new values by breeding. but
they are learning how to distribute
new stocks Of seeds and plants. They
are organizing the testing Of varieties,
% that few mistakes need be made.
They are coming to insist for them.
selves. for the domestic scotsman and
nursery man and for the foreign seed
house that the varieties must Be
tested within each state before they
Win eadorSe them. Seed vendors are
gradually coming to 2 that they
must cet into line With the el1cient
and vigorous public seed service. and
that thay must sell only seeds which
VIM produce wealth. A general label
. Ing ~ h hsiaG talked az. ana TIL
would make It dangerous to sell two
varieties out Of the same bin Of seeds,
or 'sell trees under their wrong name
-as Il would prevent the clothing
dealer from selling Is all wool cloth
ing tWo-thirds cotton and one-third
wool.
Nov the SEED or tree swindlers en-.
deavor to convert all the newly Gre
ated sentiment arising from the WORK
of the plant scientists for careful seed
selection into Grist for their mill. A
most OF their representations ar
made BY personal solicitors. they
are ab1e to claim department
Gnd0eseDent With . freedom and
f~ecklessness which they would. Per
haps. not use in printed matter sent
through tie .mails-although they DC