712 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



of this, protection in seed buying is very largely a matter of business 

 acumen on the part of the individual purchaser, which becomes very 

 important when the purchaser is also the consumer. 



In the matter of seed buying the best protection to the purchaser is 

 believed to be self-protection based on the ability to judge the quality of 

 the seed offered. This belief is supported by the fact that it is both possi- 

 ble and practicable for buyers or consumers of seeds to determine very 

 accurately their quality. 



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, 

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

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

 readiness 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 



_ required to get a report on a sample 



of seed sent to Washington or to an 



*<-3 experiment station for test is saved. 



<ga This obstacle removed, a practical 



■■-■.'- i xamination or test v ill often be made, 



b V. sil wnen ^ the seed must be sent away 



(|P '"'" it will be bought untested. Furtber- 



a «0 J - '' more, a purchaser's order from 



#Jr sample is much more likely to be 



^ . a luji fw filled from the seed actually repre- 



sented by the sample if the delav in 

 Fig. 1. — Seeds of clover dodder (b) ,. . 



and red clover (a), showing rela- sending away for a test report is 

 tive sizes. (Enlarged.) avoided 



Seed testing is admirably adapted for practical exercise work in rural 

 schools giving instruction in elementary 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 may be very practical service. A 

 study of farm seeds and their impurities tends to interest pupils in crops 

 and weeds and in their interrelation on the farm. 



