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Show AVOID WORRY WITH CERTIFIED SEED By Louis A. Jensen Extension Agronomist ' What kind of crop seed shall I plant this spring?" Farmers I who are asking themselves '.hat question while snow is still on the ground are mere apt to be ready for the planting season than those who wait for spring weather. If a farmer has already decided de-cided what crop he will plant in which field, he should order the seed now. Often, high quality qual-ity seed of the best varietj is in short supply. Waiting too long may mean disappointment to the farmer and might require his taking an inferior substi-, tute variety. Early ordering may mean money in the pocket of the forward-looking man too, because seed prices are usually highest right at planting time. "As ye sow. so shall ye reap," is an important point to rcim-nv ber about crop seed. Plants produce their likeness the snne as animals. A glance at a prospective pros-pective herd sire and dam will tell what the dairy calf will probably be, but seeds of many crop varieties are too much alike to tell the variety by looking look-ing at it. A farmer often wonders won-ders whether the seed will cvn grow after it is planted. Insurance in the form of a ! certified seed tag will protect the farmer from worry. Viability, Viabil-ity, or germination, and freedom free-dom from noxious weed seed are revealed on the tag, which acts as a guarantee of high quality qual-ity because: 1. The certified seed was planted, grown and harvested under close supervision of a recognized certifying agency. 2. Only seed of reliable origin ori-gin can be used and it must have been planted on clean land. 3. Field inspections during the growing season eliminate seed which might bear disease, I I weeds and possible mixtures. 4. Harvesting and cleaning are handled carefully to prevent pre-vent mixtures or contamination. 5. Samples are tested at the state seed laboratory for germination, germ-ination, purity, and freedom from weed seeds. 6. Only after the seed has passed the rigid standards during dur-ing all these inspections is the seed container sealed and tagged tag-ged with an official blue tag ef certified seed. This blue tag is a farmer's guarantee of quality. He can hardly afford to plant anything i else. In the next few weeks a series se-ries of aritcles will appear in this paper giving information on recommended varieties of the different field crops for Utah. |
