DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 147 



(2) Collected by inspectors. Owing to the fact that the seed in- 

 spection work, for lack of adequate funds, had to be carried on by 

 the fertilizer inspectors, the greater part of whose time was devoted 

 necessarily to the fertilizer work, they were instructed to take samples 

 only where the required labels were lacking, or where the seed even 

 though labeled, appeared suspiciously foul. The number of samples taken 

 was "accordingly small, since a large part of the seed offered for sale 

 by the smaller dealers was provided with the proper labels by the whole- 

 saler, and the remainder was largely labelled by the retailers them- 

 selves. Furthermore, the time of year in which the fertilizer inspectors 

 were making their rounds, does not coincide wit-h the period when the 

 i)ulk of seed is on sale. It would seem desirable to have inspectors who 

 could devote their whole time at the proper season, to seed inspection, 

 but with the present limited appropriation this is impracticable. 



RESULTS OF PURITY TESTS. 



The seed this year seemed to be of much better quality than that of 

 last year, although I still find a great deal of the brown soft seed in 

 red clover so common last year. This does not seem to be a general 

 condition over the country, as inquiry of other seed analysts indicates 

 that they have found very little of it. The Federal authorities have been 

 working on the problem of imported seed and I did not find much this 

 year that seemed to be of foreign origin. 



WEED CONTENT OF SAMPLES TESTED FOR PURITY. 



The seeds found as contaminations of crop seeds did not show much 

 variation from those of last J'ear, except that a few such as Wild Carrot, 

 are becoming much more common. 



The weed seeds most often found in red clover seed are as follows : 



Ambrosia elatior — Kagweed. An annual, native to this country. The 

 seed, which is slightly larger than red clover seed, is light brown in 

 color, somewhat pear-shaped, tapering to a jjoint. The surface is ridged, 

 with the ridges terminating in teeth. These may vary in number or 

 be entirely absent. If the outer hull is broken off, on account of hand- 

 ling, it discloses an inner hull, darker brown in color and smooth. When 

 seed is put through a machine it may. have this inner hull removed and 

 then will appear light green in color, almost round, with a point at 

 the base. All three forms are found in commercial seed, but only the 

 two latter will be found in cleaned red clover. It is rather hard to 

 clean out. A field badly infested with this weed should be put under 

 three-year rotation of crops, and the land should be thoroughly culti- 

 vated or mowed as soon as the crop is removed in the fall. This weed 

 is disliked by cattle either in pasture or hay, as it has a disagreeable 

 taste and odor, and if present in large quantities will taint milk. SI 79* 

 W21G. 



Chenopodium album — Lamb's Quarters, or Pigweed. An annual, intro- 

 duced from Europe. The seed is about the size of alsike clover seed, 



♦Many of the weeds describerl in this report hive been illustrated as to their seeds in 

 Bulletin 2G0 entitled "Seeds of Michigan Weeds," while the weeds themselves are illustrated 

 in Bulletin 267, revised edition. Both of these are Michigan Agricultural College, Exi)eri- 

 nient Station Bulletins. References to these illustrations are indicated by S for the seed bul- 

 letin, and W for the weed bulletin, the number following the letter indicating the figure 

 number. 



