A MOMENT IN TIME:
This cover shows an aerial view, taken May 19, 1939, of the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. At the extreme right is the Oklahoma-Biltmore Hotel, which served as headquarters for the Southern Seedsmen’s Association convention June 5-7 that year. Certified seed, a relatively new concept in the 1930s, and its importance was a major topic of discussion. At this meeting, Earl Pages, association president, recommended that the seed industry concentrate its efforts toward securing the removal of farmer exemption clauses in all seed laws. “He [the farmer grower of seed crops] knows that if the seed is foul, and the conscientious seedsman reduces his bid to allow for cleaning loss and expense, he can still sell the seed to his neighbor, weeds and all, with the blessing and sanction of the law,” Pages says.
FACTS AND FIGURES FROM THIS 1939 ISSUE:
$400,000 is the estimated cost of a new building in New York City for the United States Department of Agriculture.
62 million acres will be the wheat allotment in 1940, according to the federal government.
25 percent of field seed is supplied by the American seed trade.
35 Illinois farmers are prosecuted for violations of the seed law.
704 million bushels of wheat is the national forecast for the crop.
