The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-05-05


t our trials with his seed whether OF
not 1T possesses those characteristic
of hardness which makes the true
Grimm valuable. But our sympathy
and good opinion of this grower enc
at this very time when carefully con.
Quoted tests are reported to him
showing his seed to have no particu-
lar superiority over ommon alfalfa
and he, with this knowledge. still
continues to grow and sell his seed
as Grimm.
3. Another case is the grower who
happens to have fields of native al
falfa that he knows are 20, 25 or
even 80 years old and by virtue of
having survived so many western
winters he assumes that this alfalfa
must be hardy and deludes himself
into believing that it must be the
same as Grimm and therefore why
not sell it for Grimm and get a
Grimm price? A grower of this sort
has the right to sell his alfalfa as ma
tive seed with such statements as to
its hardness as he thinks the age of
his fields would indicate, but he has
no right to use the good name and
reputation of Grimm alfalfa to com
mand an extra price for his seed nor
can he above all, honestly sell this as
Grimm.
4. The last class of growers are
those despicable parasites of human
ity who for the sake of financial gain
will Intentionally take common alfal-
ia and sell it for Grimm or who will
take genuine Grimm and mix it with
COMMON and sell the mixture at a
fancy price as genuine, true-to-name,
unadulterated Grimm alfalfa seed.
These men are plain crooks. They
not only cause direct loss to those
with whom they deal but their
crookedness arouse suspicion re-
garding the value of Grimm and cur
tails the demand of the true, genu-
inc Grimm seed produced by the re-
liable growers. So much, then, for
the growers.
What Is Wisconsin Doing To Solve
Seed Problem
| hope | may be pardoned for tax
ing up first our own efforts in solv-
ing the problems heretofore outlined,
but for the sake of this discussion it
seems advisable to do so. First of
all, we cannot make a man honest
any more than you can, but there !
some safeguards which MAJ be ]
used. {
Our association, in cooperation
with the college of. agriculture, has
the past five years been col
hundreds of samples of
Grimm and seed Of other hardy va +
from western growers and I
sources. The samples we col q
ect are sown in plots varying from
/ fortieth to a tenth of an acre in E
;ize for comparison with common and I
Grimm Of known hardness. We have n
able to work out a system which Q
do not have time to describe, by t
which we a generally tell with a '
air degree of certainty by the char $
lcter of the growth in these plots :
he ones which are and which are not .
and true-to-name, the very
irst season we sow that seed. We
low have over 1900 Several dupli-
ates) of such plots under observa-
ion.
In this way we have a cline" on :
he best sources of seed for our seed
men and farmers.
We intend to continue on a still
extensive scale our tests with
eed from all available sources. With :
ach lot of seed we endeavor to Sc :
ure a record of its origin, history,
he acreage, etc. 1t behooves every
rover of hardy seed in the west to
ave this alfalfa tested under our
onditions. 1t is of the greatest i'm
ortance to him to find out whether
r not his seed is hardy and it is of 1
quail Importance to us to know what =
re can expect of an honest growers
Italia seed.
But these tests are only valuable
-hen the seed comes from honest
ources. A dishonest grower may
end us true Grimm but the seed he
for Grimm may not all be of the
ind he has furnished us. 1t is, there
ore, necessary hat we, have in for
lation as to his integrity and atti-
lde toward Grimm seed. Here is a
roposition in which your organiza-
on can render a great service by
dopting some plan of inspection of
rimm fields and of Grimm growers
y which the reliable producer of
ardy seed can have his alfalfa fields
,gistered and his seed inspected and