ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAE BOOK— PART XI 



713 



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b 



W 



b 



; 



W 



'<% 



a 



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

 falfa (a), showing' relative sizes. (En- 

 larged.) 



SEED 'TRADE CONDITIONS GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Most of the undesirable conditions exhibited by seed which make 

 seed testing necessary are the result of trade influences. The responsi- 

 bility for these conditions doubtless rests fully as much with the mass 



of consumers who demand 

 low-priced seed as with the 

 dealers who cater to this de- 

 mand. The trade has em- 

 ployed various means to meet 

 the demand for low-priced 

 seed. Large importations are 

 made of the same kinds of 

 seed which are produced in 

 and are exported from this 

 country. The imported seed 

 can be sold cheaper than that 

 which is exported. Grades of 

 seed which are practically 

 unsalable in Europe find a 

 ready market here because the better American-grown seed is commonly 

 considered too high priced. Various forms of seed adulteration have long 

 been practiced and seed ill adapted to our climatic conditions has often 

 been sold. The results have been frequent failure of crops, an excessive 

 cost of the actually good seed, and a wider distribution of many kinds 

 of foreign weeds than by any other means. A general understanding 

 of these conditions as they relate to particular kinds of seeds is helpful 

 in making tests. 



APPLICATION TO KINDS OF SEEDS. 



Red Glover and Alfalfa — Seed of both red clover and alfalfa is imported, 

 chiefly from Europe, in large 

 quantities annually, and 

 much of it is low in quality. 

 Such low-grade seed is usually 

 very weedy. The imported 

 red clover seed is often a 

 grade of small-seeded screen- 

 ings which carries a class of 

 weed seeds rarely found in a 

 large-seeded grade of clover 

 seed. Such low-grade seed 

 carries seed of clover dodder 

 in nearly every instance, 

 while American-grown clover 

 seed practically never carries 

 this kind of dodder seed. 

 Shriveled alfalfa-seed screen- 

 ings containing very little, if 

 any, good seed, are sometimes 

 imported. Such material can 

 serve only as an adulterant. 



Fig. 3. — Mixture of seeds of red clover (a) 

 and yellow trefoil (b). The clover seeds 

 are more or less triangular, those of tre- 

 foil oval, and usually with a distinct pro- 

 jection beside the scar notch. (Enlarged.) 



