Association of Official Seed AnalystsSociety of Commercial Seed Technologists

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESSAuthor(s): Edgar BrownSource: Proceedings of the Association of Official Seed Analysts of North America, Vol. 12/13(JULY 1921), pp. 48-50Published by: Association of Official Seed Analysts and the Society of Commercial Seed TechnologistsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23430744 .

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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

Edgar Brown, Washington, D. C.

In former years it has been customary for the retiring president to confine him

self chiefly to the happenings of the past year with suggestion for the future. I am, however, going to depart from that custom and first review briefly the development of Seed Testing in Europe and the United States.

In the following words Dr. Frederick Nobbe, the father of modern seed testing describes its beginning:

"It was in April 1869 that a prominent agriculturist of Saxony sent the author four or five samples of seeds of commercial grasses for botanical identifications. The examination showed that one sample a "meadow grass" was found to contain only thirty per cent of the species called for by the label. Instead of immediately censur

ing openly such a flagrant and presumably isolated instance, we undertook to inves

tigate the seeds bought for the use of the Tharand physiological experiment station. We then obtained small quantities of currently sold agricultural seeds from the larger seed firms of Germany, and opened (in May 1869) the first seed testing station to which we asked the agriculturists of Saxony to send samples of the seeds they bought to be tested for purity and germination."

From this modest start in less than ten years seed testing came to be recognized as an important aid to agriculture. Control Stations devoted to seed testing or where seed testing was done were rapidly established in practically all the countries of Europe. The most widely known of these through its close relation to the inter national seed trade was the Swiss Seed Control Station under the direction of Dr. Stabler. This work in Europe was and for the most part up to the present time has been voluntary and cooperative and not on the basis of regulatory laws.

In the report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1876 occurs the first account of seed testing published in the United States. The importance of seed testing as an aid to agriculture is pointed out and the methods then in use in Europe are outlined. Attention to seed testing at this time was due to two young chemists, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Warnecke, both of whom had recently had the oppor tunity of spending some time in Dr. Nobbe's laboratory. That this work was not carried on in Connecticut so rapidly as to indicate an overstimulated growth is shown in the reports for 1878 and 1879, when one and eight samples of seed were reported in these years.

About the same time Dr. LeDoux in North Carolina and Dr. Beal in Michigan were calling attention to seed testing. In the report of the North Carolina Agri cultural Experiment Station for 1879 is an outline similar to that published in Con necticut in 1876. In the report of the Michigan Agricultural Society for 1877, Dr. Beal at some length advocates seed testing. At first he confined his attentions to testing vegetable seeds for germination but soon began the examination of grasses and clovers. It was due to his interest and teaching more than to that of any other man that seed testing was given attention during the next fifteen years.

Dr. Bessey of the University of Nebraska while not attempting to make any great number of seed tests himself saw the importance of this practical application of botan ical training and interested his students in it.

Through the personal influence of these two men, Dr. Bessey and Dr. Beal, more students of the University of Nebraska and of Michigan Agricultural College than of all other institutions together have become seed analysts.

It was a student and assistant of Dr. Beal's, the Late Gilbert H. Hicks, who in 1896, working under the direction of Mr. Frederick V. Coville, organized seed testing as a definite line of investigation in the United States Department of Agriculture. Through publications, addresses and the preparation and distribution of authentic sets of seed as well as through testing seeds for farmers and seedsmen Mr. Hicks carried on a vigorous campaign of education. From this time seed testing was taken up by more and more of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Agricultural Col leges.

In Europe the keynote had been education and cooperation. At first this was true in the United States but each year more attention has been given- to legislation.

Maine in 1897 was the first to enact a state law restricting the quality of agricul tural seeds. _ This early law, however, did not take into account the important question of germination. Other states followed slowly with laws differing from each other, one requiring only a statement of the year of growth, and another prohibiting the sale of seed containing the seeds of Canada thistle.

At Washington on December 31, 1908, a meeting was held for the purpose of

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uniting seed analysts for the support of uniform legislation and uniform methods of seed testing. This was the beginning of the present association and Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who 32 years before had first called attention to seed testing in this country, was chosen president.

At the next meeting in Boston the uniform state seed bill was born and like a normal child has continued to grow and change since that time. Occasionally it has seemed to be about to take on objectionable habits but with the seed trade and this association constantly playing the part of watchful parents it has become a respected member of society.

The demand for state legislation was becoming more urgent and laws were rapidly, some times too rapidly, passed, until 35 states now have legislation regulating the sale of agricultural seeds, for the most part following along the lines of the uniform bill. Some of these laws, however, contain striking omissions. The state producing the most redtop seed does not include this seed in its law and a statement of germination is not required in several states, where the sale of seed corn is a relatively large item in the seed trade.

There are cases where improvement is needed but as a whole state legislation is gradually becoming more uniform.

Let us consider what has been accomplished and what should be done in the future. In Europe there has been a steady educational development resulting in a large proportion of the seed business being carried on under the voluntary control system. Along this line the Zurich station has been foremost. In many countries, notably in Denmark and Holland, the Seed Control Stations have undertaken to go into the seed dealers warehouse, sample the sacks of seed and seal them before making the analyses, thus giving an official value to the guarantee accompaning sales. The result of all this was that the quality of seeds used in Europe had rapidly improved up to the time of the world war. At the same time little or no restrictions were placed on foreign trade so that all qualities of seed have passed in the world market.

Prior to the enactment of the Seed Importation Act in 1912, this country imported large quantities of low grade, weedy and dead seeds which were of no value but were a menace to American agriculture. There are now being exported from the United States large quantities of seeds either chaffy, or dead, or screenings heavily infested with weed seeds which have been cleaned out of seed prohibited entry into the United States under the Seed Importation Act.

It is important for the sake of our international trade relations and reputation to stop the export of this sort of stuff now that we have determined that it shall not be imported. It is uneconomic from every point except to that of the seller to allow worthless material of any kind to move in trade. But some one may well ask why we should trouble about trade with a foreign country when we have not controlled inter state traffic in this same grade of merchandise. In our own country the campaign of education begun by Beal and Jenkins and McCarthy and taken up so vigorously by Hicks, and later by many state workers, has resulted in attracting the farmer's atten tion to the seed he sows and so gradually but steadily increasing the demand for high grade seeds while lessening the demand for the lower grades causing larger amounts of refuse to be destroyed each year.

State laws have prevented deception in interstate sales depending on the thorough ness of their enforcement.

The publication by the United States Department of Agriculture of the names of dealers found to have sold adulterated or misbranded seeds has had a marked effect in changing trade practices as to this particular form of deception.

The enforcement of the Seed Importation Act has kept out of this country low grade seed which was unfit for seeding purposes. On the whole, conditions are greatly improved over what they were ten or twenty years ago. The farmer knows better what he wants, the seed analyst is able to tell him what he has, or what is being offered to him, and the trade is buying and selling on the basis of quality as well as of car loads or thousands of bags.

What then are the conditions which need attention and improvement? On the part of the analyst there is often too wide a discrepancy between analyses made by different laboratories. This is a matter which should be corrected through our own association and I believe is rapidly being corrected. On the part of the

administrative officer there is often too lax an enforcement of the law. We should never hesitate to enforce the law. If it is a good law it will be a public benefit to enforce it. If it is a bad law and it is enforced it will be changed. If it is either good or bad and is not enforced the public is deceived by thinking it is being pro tected, the honest merchant tries to comply and is subjected to unfair competition by the dishonest merchant. Yes, there are dishonest seed merchants as there are dis honest merchants in all lines of business, and the dishonest merchant is virtually given a license to do wrong through the lax enforcement of the law.

On the part of the seed merchant there are a number of practices which should

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be changed. When we buy a box of apples put up by one of the large fruit growing or packing exchanges we know we will get an honest pack. When we buy agricultural seeds we must rely solely on what the purchaser knows of the individual reputation of the dealer and on analyses of the goods made for the purchaser. In going over sales of redtop made by 436 dealers in 1919, seed from only 58 dealers was found to be labeled as to purity and germination, of orchard grass seed purchased from 424 dealers in 1920 only that from 112 was similarly labeled. The seed trade generally is careless of the farmer's right to know the quality of the seeds he is buying. This condition exists in spite of what has been' styled the gentleman's agreement on the part of the seed trade to fully label the seeds they are selling.

Some of the mail order houses, not all of them, but certain ones, dealers in farm seeds doing an interstate business directly with farmers, and thus not subject to the restriction of state laws, are concerned chiefly if not entirely with immediate profits. This class of dealers is not governed by the business necessities which govern the wholesaler in one state who sells to a retailer in another state. In the latter case the wholesaler if he wants to continue in business must see to it that he delivers to his retailing customer seeds of a quality that will conform to the requirements of the local state law. The interstate retailer, however, is able to find a new set of farmer customers each year attracted by craftily worded and usually meaningless advertise ments.

There is still another offense and this may be the most far reaching one of all. We are importing, not every year, but frequently, a considerable proportion of this country's requirements of certain kinds of seeds. This supply naturally comes from the places of lowest prices in the world's markets and unfortunately are often poorly adapted to general use in the United States. When this seed reaches the farmer it has usually lost the statement required on manufactured articles of all kinds "made in

", but passes unnamed or as an American product. When this condition has been brought to the attention of the importer or large dealer it has often been met by the attitude or by the definite statement that the opinion of no one as to the agricultural value or lack of value of seed of certain origin is to be considered in the face of a profit of ten cents per pound.

For the improvement of these conditions have we remedies to propose? As for ourselves, our association is an aggregate not a species. We are chemists and bot anists, commissioners of agriculture and agronomists, seed commissioners and directors of experiment stations, plant physiologists and executives, but we are all public officers. As executives we must do our duty honestly and fearlessly, and without political or other influence, and in the event that we are charged with the enforcement of a law we must see to it that this law is fully enforced. As plant physiologists and chemists we should improve our technic and learn the reason why. We should devote more time to research. As agronomists we should through field tests determine the value of new varieties and the adaptability to our conditions of the products of possible sources of supply. As members of this association we should all stand for reasonable, enforceable legislation and should cooperate with the seed trade in the improvement of trade conditions.

As to the seed trade itself what have we to propose? First of all, labeling, full labeling, honest labeling. Let the initials of the American Seed Trade Association stand for this slogan "All seeds truthfully advertised" and make this apply equally to catalog, periodical and label. If the seed trade does not voluntarily label the seeds they sell legislation requiring labeling for all interstate shipments will be inevitable.

As to the unreliable type of mail order house it is unfortunately true that these houses are paying the rest of the trade gold for its dregs. So long as one part of the trade uses another part of the trade for its convenience its hands are tied. The Seed Trade can not go far in setting its house in order as long as its members are in dividually willing to sell their refuse rather than to destroy it.

As to imported seed it is quite as reasonable that it should bear the stamp of foreign as though it were a manufactued article. All seed imported from a foreign country should be accompanied by a true statement of the country of origin and in all cases where it is believed that seed from a certain country is not adapted to general use in the United States such seed should be marked to show that it is of doubtful agricultural value.

This could be effectively done by injecting into each sack some harmless coloring matter.

Let us look to the future hopefully keeping well in mind the advances which have been made as well as the things to be accomplished. Let us work together earnestly and fearlessly, never compromising but co-operating with all for progress.

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