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seed control. The principal difficulties with the seed commonly sold in 

 the markets are lack of vitality, i. e., germinating power, and impurities, 

 including not only dirt, which does little harm, but also seed of weeds 

 and parasitic plants, some of which are very harmful. The Delaware 

 Station is striving not only to detect imperfections and impurities in 

 seed, but also to show the farmer the desirability of seed control and 

 to point out the dangers lurking in the seed he uses, which may easily 

 escape his observation, and possible economies in the use of seed he 

 sows. 



Early in February, 1889, the Station appointed twelve inspectors and 

 assigned to each a separate district in the State, which embraces in 

 every case from one to three of the local divisions called "liundreds." 

 The duty of an inspector was defined to be the selection of one or more 

 samples of every kind of seed and feeding stuff offered for sale in his 

 district. The aim of this inspection was to learn definitely the kinds, 

 the quality, and the retail prices of the above-named materials, as sold 

 in Delaware. 



A complete list of the inspectors is given, and tables show the num- 

 ber and sources of the samples of seed which each one secured. Prior 

 to April 1 some two hundred and twenty samples of seeds and fifty 

 samples of feeding stuffs were received at the Station's laboratory. 

 The analyses of the feeding stuffs are still in progress, and will form 

 the subject of the next bulletin. 



Seed TESTING, F. D. Chester, M. S. (pp. 5-32).— The importance 

 of this work is urged ; attention is called to the fact that " little has 

 thus far been done by the American stations toward exercising con- 

 trol over the seeds sold in their several States;" the article also contains 

 directions for the collection of samples ; accounts of the methods of ex- 

 amination, and a copy of the form used for the report of the test ; reports 

 of tests, with explanations and practical conclusions, and a series of 

 tables in which the results of examiua'ion of seeds are given in detail. 

 The tests were of two kinds, purity examinations and germination tests. 

 Impurities. — The purity examinations show that the seeds sold in the 

 State during the present season have been fully up to the average. 

 The average results of the tests made at this Station are compared 

 with calculations of Prof. A. E. Ledoux (see Annual Report of North 

 Carolina Station for 18S0) for American and German seeds. The out- 

 come is very favorable for the Delaware seeds compared with those of 

 the United States in general, and for those in the United States as 

 compared with the German. As regards the grasses, however, Ledoux's 

 calculations are less favorable to those sold in the United States. In 

 the Delaware examinations, " garden vegetables, in accordance with 

 experience elsewhere, give, as a rule, a high percentage of purity, and 

 are comparatively" free from foul weed seeds." 



Xature of the impurities.— The kinds and amounts of all the weed 

 seeds found in the grasses and forage plants are given in a table show- 



