288 ANNUAL EEPOKTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



houses have been given the opportunity to become familiar with the 

 methods and practice of seed testing during July and August. In 

 this way testing as carried on by the seed trade is rapidly improving. 



Enforcement of the med-iinyortation act. — The enforcement of the 

 seed-importation act involved the testing of 1,230 samples of forage- 

 plant seeds offered for import into the United States. Imports of 

 the various items vary greatly from year to year both in extent and 

 as to country of origin. The outstanding feature of the imports of 

 1923 was the small quantity of red-clover seed, less than 500,000 

 pounds, as compared with" 10,000,000, 16,000,000, and 19,000,000 

 pounds, respectively, for the three previous years. The general qual- 

 ity of imported foreign plant seeds subject to the seed-importation 

 act has continually improved, both with reference to germination 

 and relative freedom from weed seeds or other foreign matter. 



Seed-vitality investigations. — Particular attention has been given 

 to the uncertain germination of cotton seed gi'own in Texas and ad- 

 joining States. Methods for germination under laboratory condi- 

 tions have been worked out, and the varying field stand obtained 

 from planting this seed has been studied under a wide range of soil 

 and climatic conditions. 



Further studies have been made on the physiology of dormancy 

 in seeds, which indicate the reason why certain seeds germinate at 

 particular seasons of the year. This has an important bearing on 

 both seed testing and crop production. 



Adulterated-seed investigations. — During the spring of 1923 sam- 

 ples of seed of orchard grass and hairy vetch were collected, but there 

 appeared to be few lots either adulterated or misbranded. An ex- 

 amination of crimson-clover seed offered by the trade before the 1923 

 crop was available showed many lots of poor germination and some 

 that were worthless for seeding purposes. 



CONGRESSIONAL SEED DISTRIBUTION. 



During the fiscal year 1923, 11,891,019 packages of vegetable seed 

 and 2,414,080 packages of flower seed, or a total of 14,305,129 pack- 

 ages, each containing five packets of different kinds of seed, were 

 distributed on congressional and miscellaneous requests. There were 

 also distributed 14,500 packages of lawn-grass seed and 10,939 pack- 

 ages of imported narcissus and tulip bulbs. The seed and bulbs were 

 purchased on competitive bids, as heretofore. Each lot of seed 

 purchased was thoroughly tested for purity and viability before 

 acceptance by the department, and a test of each lot was conducted 

 on the trial grounds of the department to determine trueness to 

 type. 



The work of packeting, assembling, and mailing the vegetable and 

 flower seeds was done by a private contractor at a price of $1,988 

 a thousand packets, including the furnishing of the packets and 

 envelopes. 



No appropriation for this activity having been made for the 

 current fiscal year in accordance with the recommendations of the 

 department, it was terminated on June 30, 1923. 



