GOOD SEED AND BAD SEED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15520, 30 January 1914, Page 5

GOOD SEED AND BAD SEED.

THE SPREAD OF WEEDS. ' PLANT SELECTION. A FASCINATING OCCUPATION. [bt our special commissioner.] No on® can travel through the farming districts of New Zealand, or even through the comparatively unsettled portions of the country, without being impressed with the quantity and variety of weeds which are growing in all manner of places. If the pastures are examined it will be found that among the grasses are an alarming number of useless plants which, besides robbing the soil and taking the place of nutritious sward, are in some cases injurious to stock, or at any rate deleterious to milk or meat. Weeds are found among cereals* roots, and fodder crops; few of them are indigen ous to the country, but without doubt nearly every variety imported thrives here remarkably well. It is estimated that the actual loss to New Zealand farmers through weeds amounts to some hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling each year. It is certain that if proper care had been exercised from the first in the thorough cleaning of imported seeds we need have had very few plant pests in this country. It is equally certain that if all seeds raised and sown in this country now were efficiently dressed we should not each year see a widening distribution bf varieties that are injurious to the land and to the farmer. If the average farmer were to be shown through a microscope samples of the grass, fodder, and root seeds which he buys each year for sowing he would be alarmed and shocked at finding that he was paying considerable sums of money for material that was dangerously injurious. He may have paid a high price for a good sample, and the merchant supplying may have thought that sufficient care had been exer cised in the cleaning and dressing of the seeds to warrant them absolutely pure. But pests of some kind are sure to be left in; machinery as yet is not so completely perfect that it can eliminate everything out the desired article, and very often seeddressing machinery is not properly adjusted. No doubt much could be done to provide Dure seeds by improving dressing machinery and by placing it always in t! s hands of thoroughly capable men. If t'ie average merchant would go to more trouble and expense there is an absolute certainty that he could stop the distribution of j many fast-spreading and pernicious weeds The merchant will not, however, go to the expense and trouble ftecessary to Bupply clean sound seed in order to sell it at the same price as badly-dressed inferior seed supplied by a rival. He must receive sufficient reward for his trouble, and the farmer must realise that so-called cheap seeds are about the dearest things he can ouy. ■, The Magnifying Glass. [ Every farmer should have a good strong , magnifying glass, and should De able at . least to recognise the different varieties of [ grass or crop seeds he is using. If he can , do this he can. of course, notice suspici- . ous strangers and take steps to get rid . of them. There is no comparison between > the monetary value of good, clean, vigor- > ous seed and that which is insufficiently - cleaned and low in quality. Inferior . samples are dear as a gift, and no . one should put them in the soil. A man s can afford to pay two or three times the 1 present market price for really first-class seed, and still find it profitable; out the drawback is that so few farmers have the means of recognising the characteristics of firsli-class seed that they are chary of , paying extra prices. A little time sp j nt J with the magnifying gla?s, and with th° germinating plates would, in most "ases Ij give the buyer of 6eed invaluable' knowi- ledge, and he would quickly learn to recog- ? nise the best types and the percentages ' likely to be obtained. There is another matter regarding 8 seeds which might be studied with i- advantage, and that is the effects of cultivation and manuring on the soil in which the seed is to be sown. It is not mucn. us« n going to the trouble and expense of ss Hieing high-class seed if it is put into badlycultivated poorly-fertilised soil, and wnen the difference is between poor seed put into poor ground or even into good gouwi, t. and good seed sown under the best conditions of soil culture, no intelligent man would require further arguments or izperiments to convince him where tlio profit y will be found. Importance of Selection. Besides good seed and bad seed, good conditions and bad conditions, there is «lso the very important question of seed selection, which may lead to a very great improvement in the yield and quality of crops. Seed selection is not a very easy matter for the ordinary busy farmer to follow out. but if anyone will take the trouble to learn what has been done even by schoolboys and girls in 10 America and Canada by a-process of picking out maize seed they will realise what ;t immense gains are open to almost anyone t- in this country. A German peasant picked r- out a peculiar head of ryegrass, and the id Western Wolth seed is now famous >k throughout the world. A keen observei le at the Government experimental farm at id Ruakura noticed an oat plant standing out t, healthy when all its companions were is stricken with rust, and to-day we have ar oat which will produce up to a hundred bushels of grain per acre and remain clear and strong whilst nearly every otnei known variety is practically destroyed. Oul ra of the thousands of acres of turnips an to nually grown in this country some speci nt mens may be picked which grow earliei or later, which bulb more efficiently, oi e- which are almost immune against, fly oi m blight. There are grasses which are th( id iast to succumb when drought strikes thi m land, maize plants which grow an extr; amount of succulent leaf for fodder, lucerm he which will withstand the spot, and a hun th dred other potentialities. There is scarcel; ile a farmer but has noticed some divergene ng of typo among the plants he has culti or vated, but hitherto few have opened thei eyes to the possibilities of such things, an* ic- fewer still have taken the trouble to sav es the seeds from such plants and try then under testing conditions. of It would be the means of increasing ou to wealth and improving the conditions o fanning generally if only good seeds wer used, but if seed selection were commence' it would add a fascinating occupation t the routine of farm life and open up possi bilities for immense development in the ar I