Biennial Report to the Board of Trustees of the North Dakota Agricultural College and North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station at Fargo, N. Dak. to the Governor of North Dakota Volume 7-9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...law would mean millions of dollars annually to the farmers of this state. Such law, should, however, call for enforcement by a stare official who is given ample power of inspection and power to condemn seeds or cause work to be done upon land upon which weeds are becoming a menace to the general farming public. Perhaps two separate laws should be enacted, one calling for proper field inspection and arranging for the destruction of weeds in the field; and one calling for thorough seed inspection, superintending the quality of seed, the variety of seed, the viability of seed, and the purity of seed. It is a matter of much importance to this new state which is just beginning to grow corn, to develop its potato crop, and other extensive farming interests, such as flax, wheat, clover and alfalfa that when a farmer or merchant purchases a quantity of seed that he should know that it is true to kind, free from weed and disease contamination, and viable to the extent that a reasonable growth may be expected under normal conditions. A law which would allow of the inspection of the seed furnished by the seed merchants, with authority on the part of the inspector to publish results found, would tend to prevent North Dakota from becoming a dumping ground for inferior agricultural seeds, and if properly executed, should result in the sale of garden and farm seeds of a much higher grade than those now usually furnished by the trade to the people of this state. During the years that have passed this department has done all it could, considering the help available, to test and examine seeds submitted, and to give a fair report both to merchants selling and farmers buying. The work of the department in other lines has increased with such rapidity that we are no longer able ...