278 ANNUAL REPORT Oh THE Off. Doc. 



can be enacted b^- the Legislature of l*euiisjlvauia, oue that is not 

 too cumbersome to the seed dealers who aim to do au honest business 

 regularly, and that will prevent the sale of inferior seeds, our 

 farmers would experience a large measure of relief from the present 

 impositions. 



Such a law should require every seed producer or dealer to affix 

 to every package or bulk of grasses, clovers and other forage plants, 

 commonly known as agricultural seeds, sold in quantities of oue 

 pound and upwards, a guarantee stating the percentage of purity 

 and of vitality. Such guarantee should, as a matter of protection 

 to both producer and consumer, be required to be dated, and a rea- 

 sonable limit of time should be fixed by the law at which the liabil- 

 ity of the guarantor should terminate. All guarantees should be 

 made to expire with the plantiug of the seed or 60 days after their 

 purchase by the consumer. Seeds of vegetables, flowers, shrubs and 

 trees might well be exempt from the action of this law, because 

 fraud in the sale of them is seldom perpetrated, and when it is, the 

 nature of it is such that it cannot be detected in the seed. All such 

 seeds, however, as well as those sold in quantities of less than one 

 pound should be required to be marked with the year of their 

 growth. The purchaser of seeds is entitled to know these facts 

 about the seeds he buvs, and the honest seedsman should not re- 

 fuse to give them. Proper penalties should of course be provided for 

 failure to comply with the law or for false guarantees. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, the enforcement of the law would naturally be placed in the 

 hands of the Secretary of Agriculture, who should be authorized to 

 secure and examine samples and publish the results substantially 

 as in the case of commercial fertilizers and to proceed against vio- 

 lators of the law. 



The effect of such a law will be, if properly enforced, to drive out of 

 the market inferior seeds, therefore greater care will be exercised in 

 the cleaning of seeds and the farmers must expect to pay a higher 

 price for his seeds. However, the statistics given in this Bulletin 

 show that often the higher-priced seeds are the cheaper to the 

 farmers. 



APPENDIX. 



The laws enacted or under consideration in other States are ap 

 pended to indicate the efforts being put forth to regulate the sale of 

 agricultural seeds. 



The law printed below was enacted in ^:897 by the Maine Legisla- 

 ture. 



