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Show Vendors of Contaminated Seed Are To Be Routed (The following article submitted by David F. Smith, commissioner of the state board of agriculture, regarding the selling of grain or garden seeds ';. containing noxious weed seeds, should be a timely warning to those who j flagrantly violate the law by selling to the unsuspecting buyer the infected infect-ed seeds. Ed.) The efforts of the people of Utah in the past few years to eliminate noxious weeds have resulted in a great deal of disappointment. Noxious weeds seem to be increasing at a very rapid pace. It is usually con-! ceded by those who have given this matter study, that the people must be aroused to the seriousness of this situation. In times past our vision in regard to this matter has been very obscure. It seems that we are planting more noxious weeds than we are eliminating. elim-inating. Recent legislatures have enacted pure seed laws for this state that are treated with contempt, and the farm-j ers are not informed of the seriousness serious-ness of the situation. During the month of April the state seed analyst visited 240 stores which were selling feed to the farmers. Sixty-eight of ! these stores handled package seed only. The remainder were selling both j bulk and package seeds. Twenty-six per cent were complying with the 'pure seed law; 32 per cent were com-j com-j plying only in part, and 42 per cent ; wore not complying with the law at j all. ! During the month of April approximately approxi-mately 1000 pounds of Brome grass seed containing quackgrass was condemned; con-demned; more than 1000 pounds of radish seed containing wild morning, ylory; a considerable amount of onion iseed containing wild morning glory; I approximately 1500 pounds of alfalfa! seed containing white-top and Russian Rus-sian knapweed were condemned and destroyed. There were also several thousand pounds of alfalfa seed which contained an excessive amount of dodder. The communities in which this seed containing noxious weed seeds was found are Salt Lake City, Provo, Og-den, Og-den, Panguitch, Kanarraville, Brig-ham Brig-ham City, Trenton, Morgan, Peoa, Kamas, Price, Roosevelt, Cedar City, Spanish Fork, Springville, Logan, Murray, Sandy, Lewiston, Bountiful, American Fork and" Duchesne. Seed firms who were operating ' contrary to law have been notified that it will be the policy of the department of agriculture in the future to prosecute prose-cute all violators of the pure seed law. We, the department of agriculture, would like to use one example per-taming per-taming to the seriousness of this situation. situ-ation. Since last seed time the department depart-ment of agriculture has condemned and destroyed several tons of radish seed infested with wild morning glory seed. There are but a few farms in our state upon which are not grown small radish patch sometime during the growing season. Probably the average av-erage amount of seed bought would be less than one pound per farm. You can readily see that wild morning glory found in the amount of seed that is mentioned would infest most of the farms of our state. As a matter of fact, the farmer is plant-frig, unknowingly, noxiou3 weeds that are destroying his farm, and along with it, the resources of our state. An educational campaign should be started at once to acquaint the people with the real facts, and the laws pertaining to violators of the pure seed laws should be, and will be, enforced as rigidly as the department depart-ment of agriculture is able. |