742 Popular Editions of Station Bulletins of the 



and 19 per ct. of those of red clover contained seeds of this harmful 

 weed. 



Under the inspection law, samples of seeds were col- 

 Methods of lected from dealers by agents of the Commissioner 

 official of Agriculture and sent to the Station for examina- 

 inspection. tion. Here the required weight of seed was care- 

 fully taken and the seeds therein counted, both 

 crop seeds and weed seeds, so that the percentage " by count," as 

 required by the law, could be ascertained. This process is a very 

 tedious one, the law, in this requirement, differing from most, if 

 not all, other seed inspection laws. Most of these laws specify per- 

 centages by weight. 



In order to shorten this method, if possible, an attempt was made 

 to establish standards of " count for weight " of the different agri- 

 cultural seeds; but this was found impossible. The number of seeds 

 in a sample of given weight of any of the farm seeds considered was 

 found to vary, not only in different grades of seeds, but in seeds 

 of the same grade grown in different localities or in different seasons, 

 and even in samples made up of varying proportions of seeds of 

 different color, as of the yellow, brown, or violet-colored seeds of 

 red clover. As illustrations: Two samples of high-grade alfalfa 

 seed contained respectively 213,000 and 250,000 seeds per pound, 

 a difference of 8.2 per ct. above or below the mean for the two samples; 

 and two samples of spring vetch seed varied nearly 25 per ct. from 

 their mean. Since such variations made it impossible to use " count " 

 standards, all seeds in each official sample were counted. By such 

 counting, it was found that all of the 11 alfalfa 

 Results of samples were well within the law, the highest per- 

 official centage of other seeds found being less than one- 

 counts, half of one per ct., and the highest percentage of 

 inert matter (sand, etc.) only one per ct. by weight. 

 With alsike clover, conditions were much worse, since 5 of the 13 

 samples contained more than 3 per ct. of foreign seeds — one of them 

 45 per ct. — and two of these samples contained also 5 and 8 per 

 ct. respectively of inert matter. Two of the five samples of Canadian 

 blue grass contained more than the limit of other seeds, and all of 

 them considerable amounts of other material so that the best sample 

 showed only 95 per ct. pure seed and the poorest one only 87 per 

 ct. The Kentucky blue grass was, however, of very much better 

 quality, as the five samples contained very little other seed, though 

 one sample showed 5 per ct., another 3 per ct. and another 2.8 per ct. 

 useless matter. The single sample of crimson clover seed was fair 

 in quality, with 1.2 per ct. of other seeds and 3 per ct. of dirt; but 

 the one sample of rape was 99.1 per ct. pure. Of red clover, 5 samples 

 out of 17 were over 99 per ct. pure, 3 others over 98 per ct. and 4 

 more over 97 per ct. pure, while the others ranged down to 92.8 

 per ct., 4 of tiiem containing more than 3 per ct. of other seeds. 



