268 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



VEGETABLE SEEDS. 



Frauds iu vegetable seeds caunol be easily detected. Tlu-j are 

 usually of a ditlereut cbai-acter from that of tbe frauds perpetrated 

 in agricultural seeds. Purity of variety or strain among vegetable 

 seeds is what gives them their special value and it is utterly im- 

 possible to detect any imposition in this regard by a study of the 

 seeds. Most vegetable seeds are supplied to the purchaser 100 per 

 cent, pure, so far as foreign seeds and materials are concerned, and 

 the per cent, of germination will commonly run over 90 per cent, in 

 fresh seeds. Samples of onions, sweet corn and eaulillovver were 

 chosen because large quantities of the two first named are used by 

 farmers and gardeners, and sometimes considerable complaint is 

 made about the results obtained from them. Cauliflower seed, par- 

 ticularly of the Dwarf Erfurt variety, is imported and is expensive; 

 hence the temptation to adulterate is strong. Frequently cauli- 

 flower seed is bought at fl.OO or more per ounce and the outcome 

 of it is either few plants of cauliflower or man^^ plants of cabbage. 

 Low germination power can be detected by tests, but the substitu- 

 tion of cabbage for cauliflower seed cannot be easily determined. 



Onions. Twenty-one samples of Onion seed were examined and all 

 but three of them were 100 per cent, pure seed. Only the Yellow 

 Globe Danvers was called for, and in the table below only this va- 

 riety is represented. The impurities in No. 108 consisted of timothy 

 seed which possibly entered the sample by accident. The impurities 

 in No. 113 were seeds of timothy and clover. In No. 135 were many 

 seeds of cabbage and a few of Lamb's (Quarters. In the germination 

 tests,, seventeen of the twenty-one samples fell short of the standard 

 of germination placed for onion seed. Two samples were below 

 25 per cent. 



Caulijlower. Only a few samples of Cauliflower were received, 

 and these were not all of the early Erfurt variety. No. 132 was la- 

 beled Paris Golden, and Nos. 187 and 198 Were Early Snowball. The 

 seed in every case was absolutely free from dirt and foreign seeds. 

 Germination ran rather low in one-half of the samples and one was 

 absolutely worthless, having the appearance of being old seed. 



