48 The Bulletix. 



received at this office concerning the poisoning of stock in the State 

 by eating water hemlock. Weeds also harbor injurious insect pests and 

 plant diseases, and the increase in number and kind is an occasion of 

 no slight concern. 



Weeds are able to thrive and hold their own so well for a number of 

 reasons, some of which are the enormous production of seeds, the time 

 of ripening their seeds, either before or at haiwest time, the great 

 vitality of some seeds, the admirable adaptation for seed dispersal by 

 water, air, and animals, and some weeds are hard to control because of 

 creeping root-stocks and tubers, as nut grass. 



Practically all of the seed placed on the market by our local dealers 

 is obtained from larger dealers outside the State, as there is no seed pro- 

 duction of commercial importance in the State. A fair and accurate 

 rating of the seed dealers, relative to the quality of seed they handle, 

 who do business in the State cannot at this time be given, as the work 

 of seed testing has not been carried on at this laboratory sufficiently 

 long, nor has a sufficient number of samples been tested to do this. But 

 the work has forcibly demonstrated that all grades of seeds are on the 

 open market, and that the seeds of no one dealer were found to be 

 uniformly high grade. AH the dealers from whom we tested seed were 

 found to sell different grades, some good, some indifferent, and some 

 very poor, so that the name of no one dealer can be taken as a guarantee 

 of good seed any more than price can be taken as an absolute guide in 

 purchasing seed, as inferior seed is often sold at the price of good seed. 



Although there are no seed-producing areas in the State of commer- 

 cial importance, in some sections farmers raise seed which they sell to 

 neighboring farmers or local seed dealers. This seed without an excep- 

 tion was found to be inferior, and in some cases was Avorse than the 

 poorest seed of dealers which came to the notice of this laboratory. 

 Locally produced seed is apt to be low-grade because the farmers take 

 no precaution to keep the fields free from Aveeds and they do not have 

 the necessary machinery to separate the weed seeds from the agricul- 

 tural seeds after they are once harvested together. In some cases the 

 locally grown seeds not only contained a high per cent of inert matter 

 and were badly infested Avith Aveed seeds, but were of low germination, 

 due to harA'esting before they Avere mature Locally groAvn seeds would, 

 of course, be the best to plant if they Avere pure and of high germination. 



Poor seed are perhaps more the result of carelessness than intentional 

 fraud, although that is not at all uncommon and is extensively practiced 

 by some dealers. The chief cause of poor seed is the demand of the 

 farmers for cheap seed regardless of the quality, and, therefore, the 

 dealers meet their demand, althougli niucli could bo done to improve 

 this condition if dealers Avould be interested in handling good seed and 

 AA^ould point out to their customers the virtue of buying good seed even 

 if it Avere higher priced. The speediest and most efficient Avay to improve 



