The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-01-31

grain for general cropping, or, IL they
have, they make slight pretense to do
anything more than to sell a certain
high grade OF grain.
Effect on Farmer: The effect on the
farmer must of necessity be a secon
dairy one and will come largely from
the better organized system of educa-
ton. He will have better opportunity
TO learn what firms make an effort to
sell him the variety or type Of seed
which he Is asking for, or what firms
make bonifide attempt to meet his
local needs. He will also learn of the
firms which make no special effort. The
law will also benefit him directly In
the fact that Ii gives him some defense
against the shipment to his place of
unclaimed grain without notifying him
of the fact. In many cases farmers
are unprepared to clean up such grain
and when they buy 1t of a so-caIled
seed house they take 1t for granted
that 1t is clean grain, only to find at a
late date, just preceding sowing that
they have on their hands a large vol
ume Of grain which is thoroughly un-
clean or unit for seed. The law allows
them a reasonable redress in such
cases. It ought to react benefcially
on farmers In yet another sense.
Farmers Of the northwest have been
largely in the habit of selling seed
grain and other seeds. BY the action
of this law 1t will be necessary for
them to keep their farm free from the
prohibited types of weeds, procure seed
cleaning machinery, etc, if they expect
to reap any benefits from the sale of
seed from their farm. It will thus tend
to cause many to take greater care
with regard to cleaning UP the land.
While the more difficult thing to do, IT
is also to be hoped that, in part, the
law will do away with Justification of
names and mixing OF varieties This in
itself cannot but work to the advantage
of both the farmer and the public. 1t
is of great importance, not only to the
farmer himself. but to the state that
the yield of each crop should be as
much as possible. In the past It has
not been an uncommon thing for farm
ers to buy large consignments of seed,
paying a high price for it, with the I'M
Outstanding that they were procuring
particular variety of high bred seed.
such for example as Minnesota exper-
iment station 25 flax" only to find after
it has been seeded that the seed which
they used was nothing more nor less
than a general mixture of ordinary
fax seed. For a like reason the law
ought to be protection or rather an
inspiration to the further work in high
class plant breeding. There could be
little encouragement for such work as
long as II was apparent to the breeder
that his varietal name would no soon
err be given to the public than certain
men would be claiming to sell the var
iety in carloads, when in reality only
bushels were to be had.
What can it profit the different states
to support extensive experiment sta
tions for the development Of high yield
ing varieties Of seed grain or to support
expensive farmers institutes and edu-
cational extension courses, both of
which deal largely with the desirability
of farmers procuring high class new
varieties of seed, If careless or GRIMM
ally inclined sellers of seed are allowed,
without any penalty other than loss
of a customer now and then, to mix and
tumble and falsify the names by which
the seeds are known?