Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A rICH HErITAGE - CLASSIC ConTrIbuTIonS And MEMorAbLE MILESTonES
For nearly a century seed testing remained essentially an art, with most attention given to determination
of purity and germination. Attention to these two “cornerstones” of seed quality developed quite naturally
due to the need to obtain information required for seed labeling. Actually, this period was very produc-
tive and great progress was made in establishing the foundations for strong seed testing programs. Thus,
a great wealth of seed and seedling descriptions was produced, seed testing procedures were developed
and standardized, interpretations for germination were standardized, and the normal seedling concept was
developed.
The contribution to the art of seed identiication during this era deserves special mention, particularly
the art of F. A. Hillman, Helen H. Henry, and Regina O. Hughes. Their drawings of crop and weed seeds
are lasting monuments to their contributions and remain as invaluable aids to every seed testing laboratory,
even today. These and other selected classic contributions to the development of seed testing and seed tech-
nology are listed below:
1816 - City of Bern, Switzerland, enacted legislation prohibiting the sale of adulterated clover seed--earli-
est regulation on the sale of seed (McIntyre, 1958).
1869 - First seed testing laboratory established in Saxony, Germany, by Friedrich Nobbe (Justice, 1961).
The British Parliament adopted the Adulterated Seeds Act (McIntyre, 1958).
1876 - E. H. Jenkins established the irst seed testing laboratory in the United States at the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station (Justice, 1961).
1879 - Dr. W. J. Beal of Michigan State University began the irst buried seed experiments to test the long-
term storability of seeds (Quick, 1961).
1894 - Pure seed investigations (a seed testing laboratory) organized within USDA by Gilbert H. Hicks
(French, 1958).
1897 - First rules for seed testing in North America prepared and published by the United States Department
of Agriculture in a circular entitled “Rules and apparatus for seed testing” (Justice, 1961).
G. H. Hicks, USDA Federal Seed Laboratory, published details for construction of a germination
chamber (Justice, 1958b).
1900 - 1930 - F. A. Hillman and Helen H. Hughes collaborated to prepare drawings of seeds of important
crop seeds as well as incidental weed seeds commonly found in samples tested by purity analysts.
Many of these drawings were compiled into a series of ifteen “seed plates” which have been used
by generations of analysts to help identify seeds encountered in purity testing. This was followed
by drawings made by Albina Musil and Regina O. Hughes. Over the years, this has been expanded
into at least 34 plates that today provide a wealth of seed illustrations to help in seed identiication
(Musil, 1958, Justice, 1961).
1901 - Waller found that live and dead seeds gave different “blaze currents” which could be measured by a
galvanometer, which became the basis for the success of the conductivity test in the determination
of seed vigor (Waller, 1901).
1908 - Edgar Brown, head of the USDA Seed Investigations Laboratory, became founding father of the
Association of Oficial Seed Analysts (French, 1958).
1912 - E. G. Brown--instrumental in the passage of the Seed Importations Act in the United States
(McIntyre, 1958).
1915 - E. G. Boerner developed a device for sampling grain, seeds and other materials, useful for mixing
and dividing free-lowing samples (Boerner, 1915).
1916 - H. D. Hughes developed the irst seed counter for preparing germination tests (Hughes, 1958).
1917 - First rules for testing seeds published by AOSA (Justice, 1961).
G. N. Collins developed the irst seed blower.
1924 - Formation and organization of the International Seed Testing Association (Witte, 1937).
