The renewal section states that the Commodity Credit Corporation reserves the right to renew the contract from year to year by giving written notice to the producers on or before December 1 of each year. Commodity Credit Corporation also reserves the right in any renewal to adjust the prices to be paid.

All foundation seed is packaged 30 or 50 pounds to a bag, depending on the crop. Since a grower would use at least one bag in establishing a seed field, these small units avoid the necessity for breaking seals, rebagging, and re-tagging under the supervision of the certifying agency. The loss is less if the bags are damaged in transit.

CARRYOVER RESERVES are essential for maintaining a continuous supply of foundation seed. It is estimated there should be at least a year's supply on hand at all times as a protection against a short crop and as a source for filling requests received before the next seed crop is available.

The reserve has proved valuable in filling requests for foundation seed from areas where fall seeding is practiced. For example, many seedgrowers in Arizona and California prefer to make their seedings of alfalfa and red clover in October to December. The seedlings then can make adequate growth during the winter and early spring and produce a full seed crop the first year. Foundation seed to fill these early requests must be carried over from the previous year's crop.

ANY QUALIFIED grower or seedsmen planning to produce registered or certified seed may purchase foundation seed. All requests for foundation seed must be placed through the State foundation seed representative, who approves each sale in his State. Thus, liaison is maintained between the sale and distribution of foundation seed and inclusion of the planted acreage in the certification program.

The sale price for foundation seed is usually 10 to 15 cents a pound higher than the contract-grower price. This markup covers storage, handling, and blending charges; losses resulting from deteriorated seed; and the sale of surplus foundation seed at prices lower than cost.

Payment for foundation seed must be made before delivery, except when the order is placed by a branch of a State government (such as the State university or the agricultural experiment station). That seed can be shipped on receipt of order, and the invoice can be submitted after delivery.

THE EFFECTIVENESS of the cooperative Foundation Seed Project is illustrated in the rapid increase of certified seed of Vernal alfalfa, Gahi-1 pearl millet, and Kenland red clover.

Vernal alfalfa was released jointly by the Wisconsin and Utah Agricultural Experiment Stations and the Department of Agriculture in February 1953. Sixty pounds of breeder seed were available and were used to plant a 31 -acre field in April in Washington to produce foundation seed. A 13-acre foundation seed field had been established in 1952 in Utah. In the fall of 1953, 9,599 pounds of foundation seed were harvested. Approximately half of the foundation seed was distributed in Arizona and California and the remainder in the Northern States for the production of certified seed. (The registered class is not used in the increase of Vernal.) When the crop was harvested in 1954, there were 2.1 million pounds of certified Vernal seed. This large volume of seed was available 18 months after the variety was released.

The production of certified Vernal rose to more than 10 million pounds annually. In comparison, 1,101,235 pounds of certified Ranger alfalfa and 14,568 pounds of certified Atlantic alfalfa were produced, 6 and 8 years following release, respectively, preceding the functioning of the Foundation Seed Project.

Gahi-1 pearl millet was developed by the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station and the Department of Agriculture at Tifton, Ga. Gahi-1 is a chance hybrid consisting of four inbred lines. Consequently, seed of each of the inbred lines must be produced separately. Thus, foundation seed of Gahi-1 is a mechanical blend of equal amounts of pure live seed from each of the lines.

Gahi-1 was accepted by the Planning Conference in 1958. A little more than 11 thousand pounds of foundation seed were produced that year in Arizona. The foundation seed was distributed to growers and seedsmen in Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, and Texas in the spring of 1959 for the production of certified seed. Seven months later, the growers harvested more than 3 million pounds of certified seed, which were distributed by the seed trade to farmers in the Southern States for the production of forage-2 years after the variety was released.

Kenland red clover, developed at the Kentucky Experiment Station, was released in 1947. It was one of the first varieties included in the Foundation Seed Project. Breeder seed was planted in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington in 1949 and 1950. The foundation seed was used to produce registered and certified seed. By the spring of 1952, farmers in the Central and Eastern States had about 4 million pounds of certified Kenland to plant.

In comparison, Cumberland red clover Kenland's predecessor was released in 1938. The largest production in any one year was goo thousand pounds, and that came 7 years after its release. At that time there was no coordinated program to manage the production and distribution of foundation seed. Cumberland therefore never made the contribution to our agriculture that it should have.

The potential value of numerous forage-crop varieties has been lost because of various breakdowns during the seed multiplication process. This is why a coordinated program to assure an adequate and continuing supply of foundation seed is so useful.

Another feature of a coordinated program such as the Foundation Seed Project is the opportunity to check the varietal purity of each lot of foundation seed. This is particularly important when foundation seed is produced in seed-growing areas hundreds or thousands of miles from its origin.

VARIETAL IMPURITIES and shifts in characteristics can result when pollen moves unusual distances from a contaminating field, when viable seeds remain in the soil from a crop grown on the land many years prior to planting the foundation seed field, or when the environment influences plant growth. When all foundation seed of a variety are within one program, samples of each seed lot can be planted in uniform tests to determine its trueness to variety.

A seed lot occasionally is found with offtype plants. It is eliminated immediately from the foundation seed supplies.

All breeder and foundation seed lots of each of the four inbred lines of Gahi-1 pearl millet were tested recently for trueness to variety. Two lots were found to contain contaminants. Both were sold for feed. A new, pure supply of seeds was produced.

These and other intricate steps are taken to protect the superior characteristics of varieties and to assure seeds-men and seedgrowers of foundation seed that is true to variety.

CARLTON S. GARRISON is Research Leader, Seed Production Investigations, Forage and Range Research Branch, Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service. He is in charge of the Foundation Seed Project of the Department.