The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-09-18
MILLIONS SPENT FOR
FOREIGN SEED BY U. S.
AMERICAN FARMERS DRAW
HEAVILY ON OTHER cOUN-
TRIES FOR SEEDS.

American farmers grow hundreds of
thousands of acres of crops from seeds
produced in other countries, but fire.
quently, perhaps usually, the man who
plants it has no idea that it came from
the panpas of Argentina, the we'll
titled fields of Germany or from dis
tant Turkestan. The department of
agriculture keeps record of all the
seed offered for entry into the conn
try, under authority of the seed inn
portation act, and does its best to
keep out poor seeds and those carry
ing insect pests or diseases.
Quality of Seed Improved.
AS result we have means Of know
ing what different countries are pro-
viding for American farmers to plant,
although the exporting country is not
in all cases the country In which the
seed was grown. OF late years the
quality of seeds imported has inprov-
ed greatly as result of the govern
ment's policy of determining the quail
ity of shipments of seeds.
According to records kept since
1919 practically all of the seed of all
sike clover and Canada bluegrass
came from Canada. Very little red
clover seed was imported during the
last year, but previous to 1o22-lo23
most Of the foreign seed of the this
crop came from France, Italy, Ger
many, England and Chile. In 1928
we got our outside supply of alfalfa
seed from Argentina and Russian
Turkestan, with little from Uruguay
and Germany. Before this year Italy
and France had shipped us consider
able qualities. Crimson clover comes
from England, Germany and France;
white clover from Germany and Cze-
cho-Slovakia.
Denmark and Germany are sending
us orchard grass seed A number of
years ago New Zealand was a source
of supply. Rape seed formerly came
from Holland, France and Germany,
but during the war Japan stepped in
and supplied practically our entire de-.
mand. Now Holland, France and
England are taking part OF the mark
ct away from the Orientals.
ireland Big Source.
ireland is the principal source of
both English and Italian rye grass
seed, but some of the English variety
also comes from New Zealand, Scot
land and England Some seed of the
Italian variety is sent in from New
Zealand and Denmark, while Argen-
tina supplies variety differing from
either of the others.
Gremany is the leader in supplying
this United States with seed of hairy
vetch, a legume crop which has be-
come very popular in the eastern
states in recent years, but the Ger
mans get the seed from Latvia, Lii
tijuana and other nearby countries
Spring vetch seed is largely of Ger
man origin, with some coming from
England, Holland, Latvia and Cana
da.
American purchases of some forage
crop seeds are very large indeed. Some
countries send millions of pounds of
even a single kind for the use of farm
ers in various parts of the country.
Argentina, for instance, shipped us
nearly 100000 pounds of alfalfa seed
last year, In the same period Canada
sold us more than 5,500,000 pounds of
alsike clover seed and $4,000 pounds
of Canada blue grass. We bought a.,
100000 pounds of rape seed from ia
pan and considerably more than l.,
100000 pounds of crimson clover seed
from France