The West Virginia News

According to a statement made to the Princeton Evening Press by Mr. Martyn Rodgers, special agent of the state department of agriculture, several thousands of dollars worth of inferior and adulterated seeds have been condemned and taken off the market in Princeton and Bluefield, as a result of the investigation carried on by Mr. Rodgers under the state law governing the sale of seeds.

Mr. Rodgers stated that the dealers who handled the seeds were, as a whole, honest, and did not know that their seeds failed to comply with the present laws of the state in marking the contents of their seed packets.

Many thousands of dollars will be saved to the farmers of Mercer county as a result of this investigation, and the dealers of the county have been protected as well by the expose of the inferior quality of the seeds that have been shipped into West Virginia by unscrupulous seedsmen.

The Princeton Press says it was found that between six and eight thousand dollars worth of seed had been condemned in Bluefield alone and that the companies had taken the precaution to order their new seeds from reputable concerns.

According to the authorities, the sale of inferior seeds has been a common practice in West Virginia in the past because of the lack of a law covering the offense. Before the passage of the new West Virginia seed law, seedsmen could send second grade seed into West Virginia and get first class prices for them, but now the law requires them to mark the percentage of germination, the percentage of purity, and the year in which they were grown.

The new law is one of the most comprehensive on the subject in the United States, and if efficiently enforced, will make the farmers safe in buying their seeds from local dealers.

Farmers are urged by the state department of agriculture to be careful in the selection of their seeds and to see whether the container contains the required analysis. All seeds that do not comply with the law will be suppressed from the market until the seedsmen comply with the law.