New York Agricultueal Experiment Station. 181 



ence of Centaurea repens, were considered Turkestan alfalfa. 

 There was no case of adulteration; that is, no sample contained 

 5 per ct. or more of any impurity. However, 91 samples con- 

 tained sweet clover and in 7 of these it was present at the rate of 

 2 per ct. ; five contained yellow trefoil in small amounts; and 23 

 samples contained a considerable amount of brown, shriveled 

 alfalfa seed, most of which would not germinate. Samples like 

 the last named show the importance and need of germination 

 tests. Impure seed or seed of low viability is expensive at any 

 price and should be avoided. 



Dodder seed. — The amount of dodder seed found ranged from 

 less than twenty seeds to the pound in 32 samples to 1,5 OD seeds 

 in one sample, 2,000 in another and 2,800 in another, while 36 

 samples contained from 20 to 200 seeds. Two-thirds of the 71 

 dodder-infested samples contained the large-seeded kinds, about 

 the same proportion as last year. Four samples contained both 

 large and small-seeded dodder. Alfalfa seed containing dodder 

 should be avoided. The small-seeded kind* may be removed by 

 careful sifting; but this is impossible, so far as the writer is 

 aware, in the case of the large-seeded kind. 



Siveet clover. — Only 13 samples of alfalfa seed contained 1 

 per ct. or more of sweet clover seed, 7 samples showing from 

 1 to 2 per ct. and 6 samples from 2 to 3^/^ per ct. of this 

 impurity. 



General appearance. — Considering principally the characters 

 of color, plumpness and size, and disregarding the impurities 

 contained, 12 samples were graded as poor, 27 poor to average, 

 83 average, 96 average to excellent, and 330 excellent. 



Weight of samples. — Many of the samples were too small to 

 represent fairly the bulk of seed from which they were taken. 

 Of those received during 1911, 80 samples wefghed less than half 

 an ounce, 63 one-half ounce, 55 three-fourths of an ounce, 75 one 



* In this report " small-seeded " dodder seeds are such as will pass 

 through a 20-mesh sieve made from No. 34 W. and M. steel wire. See Bul- 

 letin No. 305 of this Station. Seeds of the " large-seeded " dodder will not 

 pass through such a sieve. 



