SCANDINAVIAN SEED-CONTROL STATIONS. 



F. W. Wui.i, M. S., 

 Assistant Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Wisconsin. 



The plan of establishing special seed-control stations began to be 

 discussed in the Scandinavian countries at about the same time that it 

 was in Germany, viz, in the early part of 1869, but the latter country 

 led in the realization of the plan by nearly two years. The seed-con- 

 trol station at Tharand, Saxony, was established by F. Xobbe in May, 

 1869, while that at Copenhagen, Denmark, was opened in February, 

 1871, by E. Moller-Holst. The Danish seed control celebrated its 

 twenty-fifth anniversary in 1896, on which occasion a special report on 

 Danish seed control, 1871-1896,' was prepared for publication by the 

 present director of the station, O. Kostrup, containing an account of 

 the activities of the station since its establishment, and a statement of 

 the present methods of seed analysis followed by the station. Much 

 of the information given in the present article is gleaned from this 

 report and from B. Jonsson's exhaustive paper on the history and 

 present condition of the seed control. 2 The annual reports and other 

 publications of the various stations have furthermore been drawn upon 

 for information concerning the work done by the stations. 



The other Scandinavian countries did pot organize seed-control sta- 

 tions until several years after the establishment of the Danish station, 

 viz, Sweden in 1876 and Norway in 1884. The two stations of this kind 

 existing in Finland date from 1880 and 1882. (See p. 7.) 



The conditions which brought into existence the seed-control sta- 

 tions in the countries named were similar to those found in other coun- 

 tries where such stations were established. Since these conditions are 

 well known to students they need not be considered in detail here. 

 Many kinds of seed sold in the Scandinavian countries during the 

 early stages of the seed control were imported from Germany or sur- 

 rounding countries, and the frauds described by Kobbe and other early 

 champions of seed control in Germany were also found in the Scan- 

 dinavian countries, including the use of powdered quartz, white or 

 artificially colored, of any shade desired as an adulterant of clover 

 seed, known to the trade as "Bohemian Mountains;" peat dust for 

 adulterating timothy seed; bleaching of seed; admixtures of killed 



'Dansk Frokontrol, 1871-1896, O. Roatrup, Copenhagen, 1896. Published by 

 Nordiske Forlag, 81 pp., ill. 



52 K. Landt. Akad. I laudl. Tidskr., 33 (1894 ), pp. 257-28(1, 321-372 (E. S. R. ; 6, p. Mir.). 

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