146 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Dr. Ernst A. Bessej^, East Lansing, Micliigan. 



Dear Sir — I respectfully submit the following report of the work of 

 Ihe Seed Laboratory for the year ending June ;^0, 11)17. May I suggest 

 that a request be sent in for five hundred separates of this report, so that 

 it may be distributed among those in the state who may be interested. 



Yours very truly, 

 BERTHA A. HOLLISTER, 



State Seed Analyst. 



REPORT OP THE SEED LABORATORY. 



As in previous years the laboratory has made tests of various kinds 

 of field seeds for tlie farmers and dealers in the state. In addition to 

 the purity tests made, a number of samples were tested for germination 

 and a number were identified. 



LABORATORY EQUIPMENT. 



At the present time, we have in the laboratory one Vertical Air- Blast 

 Seed Separator, one Binocular Dissecting Microscoj^e, one Seed Mixer 

 and Sampler, one Torsion Balance with weights, three working boards, 

 three triple aplanat magnifiers of six diameters, and two of nine 

 diameters, forceps and glassware necessary for carrying on the work, and 

 a set of file cases which includes a filing case, made to our order, capable 

 of holding six thousand specimens of seeds. 



SEED COLLECTION. 



At present the seed collection numbers a little over four thousand 

 samples. Seventeen hundred of these came from Henning of Germany. 

 Five hundred were sent out by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. One hundred were included in the Halsted collection, and a 

 great many have been received from botanical gardens in different parts 

 of the world, such as Bremen, Petrograd, Moscow,. Sydney, East Java 

 and Berlin. Occasionally during the year we receive samples from other 

 sources. This year we are indebted to Mr. Edw. E. Evans of West 

 Branch, for authentic samples of several varieties of soy beans, of the 

 varieties well adapted for Michigan. We are also indebted to the 

 I'ortland Seed Co., of Portland, Oregon, for samples of flower seeds, 

 over a hundred in number, which will be of great help in making identifi- 

 cations. As seeds are sent in for identification, they are added to the 

 collection in all cases where there is not already a sample, or where 

 the sample already in the collection is of foreign origin. 



PURITY TESTS. 



The samples received are obtained in one of the following ways : 

 (1) Sent in voluntarily, by farmers and dealers. The majority of 

 samples tested are those sent in voluntarily. The number coming in 

 this year was twelve hundred, approximately the same as last year, about 

 half coming from farmers and the remainder from seed dealers. There 

 is still some misunderstanding on the part of the farmers with regard 

 to the fee of twenty-five cents which is charged for testing each sample, 

 it not being generally known that this is required by the state law. 



