138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



entirely ; but it stands to reason that it must injure it much 

 more seriously than is generally supposed. If you sow your 

 grass-seed with oats in the spring, and cut your oats, say in 

 July, or whenever they are fit to cut, and there happens to 

 be a hot and exceptionally dry time, the chances are about 

 even that your grass will be entirely destroyed. Here and 

 there will be a moist piece of land that will stand that kind 

 of treatment ; but it is an exception. If grass-seed is sown 

 in the spring, I would rather take my chance with the grass 

 alone than with any grain sown with it. In nine cases out 

 of ten I should get the advantage of it. Here and there 

 may be exceptions (there are exceptions to almost all general 

 rules, of course) ; but we must act on general rules. In a 

 great many matters in reference to farming we are to take 

 our chances, and consider how, on the whole, we shall be 

 most likely to get the best results. 



The selection of seed should be made with greater care 

 than is usually exercised, both with reference to the fresh- 

 ness or purity of seed and the species to cultivate. There is 

 every reason to believe that large quantities of old seed are 

 left over from year to year to be mixed in with new seed as 

 it is received from first hands, and that farmers sustain great 

 losses in consequence of this practice. It is not easy to 

 detect this mixture. It is not necessarily fraudulent, though 

 the result to the farmer is often as bad as if it were. The 

 length of time which seeds retain their vitality differs con- 

 siderably. The seeds of some plants retain their vitality 

 longer than others. Seeds so small as those of the grasses 

 are generally comparatively short-lived. But it does not 

 necessarily follow, that, because seed is left over one year, it 

 has lost its vitality. I think, if it were not more than two or 

 three years old, it would be safe to use it. But, after all, you 

 want to know what you are buying. 



I know of no way to determine the vitality of seed, except 

 by selecting a certain number, and testing them, by putting 

 them in conditions favorable to germination ; which is a very 

 simple thing to do. If you find, for example, that seventy- 

 five or eighty out of a hundred seeds germinate, then you 

 may infer that seventy-five or eighty per cent of that seed is 

 good. If you select at random one hundred seeds out of a 

 lot, no matter what the seed is, and test that hundred care- 



