168 Report of the Department of Botany of the 



for examination. Attention should be called to the undesirability 

 of accepting as a final guide to quality the small packets of seed 

 put out by some seed dealers as representative advertising samples 

 of the seed sold by them during the season, since it has been 

 found that in many cases such samples do not represent fully the 

 seed sold. 



germination tests. 



Germinability is of as much interest as is purity and in some 

 cases of more importance, but tests for germination may and 

 should be made by each individual farmer or seed-grower. Such 

 tests are easily made by the use of simple, home methods which 

 are very reliable and are fully described in Leaflet M, of this 

 Station, which will be sent upon request. 



Germination tests reveal the presence of old seed which may 

 have been mixed with new seed as a means of disposing of the 

 former, and also give the percentage of strong seeds, which 

 can be used as a guide at seeding time. Many requests are re- 

 ceived for germination tests, but owing to the fact that the Sta- 

 tion is not equipped to make large numbers of tests it seems 

 necessary to refuse such requests. Really, the Station should not 

 be asked to make such tests, as they are so easily carried out at 

 home. 



ADULTERATION. 



Adulteration of crop seeds, while becoming less common in the 

 State, was occasionally encountered in alfalfa samples, and in 

 samples of hairy vetch seed. Seven samples of alfalfa were found 

 to contain a considerable amount of some yellow, foreign seed 

 broken into pieces about the size of alfalfa seed. This material 

 was of a lighter color than alfalfa seed, irregular in shape and of 

 such size that it passed through a sieve of 20 meshes to the linear 

 inch, used to remove dodder from alfalfa seed. It seems very 

 evident that this material was added intentionally. 



One sample of alfalfa seed was found to contain 13 per ct. of 

 dead seed which had been used as an adulterant. Several other 



