EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. VI. No. 10. 



Efforts are continually being made in certain parts of Europe to dis- 

 credit American clover seed. During the last two or three years, on 

 account of tlie dronglit in Europe during the summers of 1893 and 1894, 

 the importation of American seed greatly increased and an outcry was 

 made to beware of such seed on account of insect larvae, weed seeds, 

 and general worthlessness. Some of the statements published seem to 

 be inspired, not so much from a desire to protect consumers from real 

 danger, as to bring the products of this country into disfavor. 



The danger of introducing insect pests is very reu)ote, and the purity 

 and vitality of American clover seed will compare favorably with that 

 grown in any part of the world. A prominent exporter has recently 

 said that clover seed is sold abroad almost entirely by sample and 

 that qualities are furnished to suit the intelligence and conscience of 

 the buyers, hence the responsibility of placing a low grade of seed on 

 foreign markets rests upon the importer. American dealers send their 

 seed to the Federal Seed-Control Station at Zurich, Switzerland, for 

 certification, and it ranks with that of any country in purity, vitality, 

 and intrinsic worth. That weed seeds are found in American clover 

 seed is not to be denied, but the same is true of European seed. Two 

 lots of white and yellow clover seed, varieties little grown for seed in 

 this country, reported upon in a recent Austrian report, contained 19 

 and 21.6 per cent of foreign seeds, a considerable proportion of which 

 Avas clover dodder, a plant more injurious to clover than all the native 

 weeds found in our clover fields. 



In an article published in a reputable German agricultural journal, 

 a list is given of 50 species of weed seed said to have been found in 

 American clover seed. Thirty of the species enumerated are of Euro- 

 pean origin and 9 are not specifically determined, leaving but 11 species 

 of certain American origin. The same author attempts to determine 

 the part of the United States in which the clover seed grew from the 

 accompanying weed seed. In making the city from which the seed 

 was exported stand for the group of States adjacent to it he shows 



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