304 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



During the year just closed 202 official samples of seeds were col- 

 lected by special agents of the Department from dealers and seeds- 

 men located in the State. These samples were all tested as required 

 by the law and I'cports sent out to the parties from whom the sam- 

 ples were obtained. In addition to this there were 376 special sam- 

 ples sent to the Department for purity test by seed dealers and seed 

 growers located in the State; thus taking advantage of the provision 

 in the law for finding out whetlier seeds which were to be offered for 

 sale would meet the established standards for purity. 



The results of the seed tests made during the past year have been 

 published in the form of a Bulletin, No. 258, which will be sent 

 to any one desiring a copy, if they will kindly send their names to the 

 office of the Bureau of Chemistry. This report shows the tests made 

 on each sample of seed examined and goes into detail concerning the 

 work. It will be unnecessary at this time to attempt to give this in- 

 formation. It will be of interest, however, to include in this report, 

 a summary or an average of the purity of the official samples of seeds 

 examined, as follows: 



AVERAGE PURITY OF OFFICIAL SAMPLES 



Name of Seed 



Red clover 



Crimson clover, 



Alfalfa 



Timothy grass, 



Barley 



Buckwheat, 



Oats 



Alsike clover 



Perennial rye grass, .. 



German millet 



Hungarian millet, 



White clover 



Red Top grass (hulled) 



Orchard grass, 



Kentucky blue grass, .. 



Total 



Per ct. 

 0.4 

 1.0 

 0.3 

 0.4 

 0.2 

 0.5 

 0.9 

 0.7 

 1.9 

 0.6 

 0.8 

 1.1 

 9.7 

 20.2 

 17.2 



It will be seen from the above figures that in every case the aver- 

 age test for each kind of seed was in excess of the standards of 

 purity, and in only a few cases the actual test ran slightly under the 

 required percentage. 



It, no doubt, will be of interest also to learn something of the 

 methods employed in testing seeds for purity. This work is rather 

 tedious and takes consideralble time and care, if accurate results are 

 to be obtained. The methods which we use are essentially the same 

 as those employed in the Seed Laboratory of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and other well equipped laboratories. Be- 

 cause of the lack of complete information on the subject, no stand- 

 ards for germination were included in the Seed Law and, therefore, 

 germination tests are not made by the Department. 



