Testing Farm Seeds. 



337 



The purpose of this bulletin is to encourage seed testing in the farm 

 home and in the rural school by explaining the essential features of seed 

 testing as it relates to farm seeds and by showing how satisfactory tests 

 ■can be made by simple means. The expense involved is slight and, con- 

 sidering the little effort and time required, is thoroughly justified by the 

 practical information to be gained. The writer 's observation of the readi- 

 ness with which beginners have qualified themselves for making such tests 

 under instruction scarcely more favorable than that offered here, satisfies 

 him of the absence of any valid reason why farmers should not protect 

 themselves from the use of poor seed. 



An important advantage of making tests at home is that the time re- 

 quired to get a report on a sample of seed sent to Washington or to an 

 experiment station for test is saved. This obstacle removed, a practical 

 examination or test will often be made, 

 when if the seed must be sent away it 

 will be bought untested. Further- 

 more, a purchaser's order from sam- 

 ple is much more likely to be filled 

 from the seed actually represented by 

 the sample if the delay in sending 

 away for a test report is avoided. 



Seed testing is admirably adapted 

 for practical exercise work in rural 

 schools giving instruction in elemen- 

 tary agriculture. It is easily carried on at any season of the year and 

 requires but little outlay for apparatus or working material. If tests are 

 made of seed of interest at the time in the homes of the pupils, the results 

 imay be of very practical service. A study of farm seeds and their im- 

 purities tends to interest pupils in crops and weeds and in their inter- 

 relation on the farm. 



SEED TRADE CONDITIONS. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Most of the undesirable con- 

 ditions exhibited by seed 

 which make seed testing nec- 

 essary are the result of trade 

 influences. The responsibility 

 for these conditions doubtless 

 rests fully as much with the 

 _ „ ^ , , , , , mass of consumers who de- 



FiG. 2. — Seeds of clover dodder (b) and al- 

 falfa (a), showing relative sizes. (En- mand low-priccd Seed as with 

 larged.) ■ . 



Fig. 1. — Seeds of clover dodder (b) 

 and red clover (a), showing rela- 

 tive sizes. (Enlarged.) 



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