758 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



lets (German, common, and Hungarian) and the barnyard and Japanese 

 millets. The seed test should show which kind is involved. 



Seeds of the broom-corn millets are mostly free from the brown, papery, 

 loose-fitting chaff; they are broadly oval, robust, highly polished, shining, 

 and tend to roll readily on a plane surface. The color varies in different 

 varieties and includes straw-color, light yellow, orange, gray, and dark 

 brown. 



Seed of the foxtail millets appears both with and without the thin, 

 whitish, outer chaff, most of the seeds being free from it. With the outer 

 chaff removed, the seeds present a finely roughened, or stippled, surface 

 which has a slight luster. German millet seeds usually are broadly oval, 

 robust; they roll readily and are commonly orange colored. Common mil- 

 let seeds are oval, but relatively longer in proportion to their width 

 than seeds of German millet; yellowish or greenish in color. Hungarian 

 millet seed consists of a mixture of yellow or golden colored seeds and 

 of dark-purple seeds. The darker seeds are often mottled. Seeds of the 

 foxtail millets, particularly those of common millet, are distinguishable 

 from the similar seeds of the weed, green foxtail, by their slightly larger 

 size and more polished surface. 



Seed of barnyard millet including that of Japanese millet is chiefly 

 inclosed in the light-brown or dark-brown, hairy, sharp-pointed outer 

 chaff. With this chaff removed, the seed is oval, whitish or gray, smooth, 

 and polished, plano-convex, the convex face strongly arched. 



The purity of all the millets should reach 99 per cent, the viability 

 95 per cent or higher in three to five days. 



Much of the seed of all the millets used in this country, excepting 

 possibly the common barnyard millet, is imported, and many kinds 

 of injurious weeds are thus introduced. This is particularly true of 

 the broom-corn and foxtail millets. About the same kinds of weed seeds 

 are carried by each. 



The noxious weed seeds found in broormcorn millet include: Dock, 

 black bindweed, corn cockle, night-flowering catchfly, cow cockle, penny- 

 cress, ball mustard, English charlock, Indian mustard hare's ear mus- 

 tard, tumbling mustard, field bindweed, corn gromwell, rat tail plantain, 

 buckhorn, wild sunflower, Canada thistle, wild chicory. 



Other weed seeds comonly found in broom-corn millet include: Crab- 

 grass, yellow foxtail, green foxtail, soft chess, sorrel, knotweed, pale knot- 

 weed, lady's-thumb, lamb's-quarters, rough amaranth, spreading amaranth, 

 wild spurry. creeping buttercup, red pimpernel, sticktight, vervain, healall, 

 cleavers, clog fennel, field camomile. 



TESTING SEED WHEAT. 



A practical test of seed wheat may be made in which the points to be 

 considered are the quantity of shriveled, or "pinched," grains, the pres- 

 ence of bunt, the quantity and character of the weed seeds, and the via- 

 bility of the plump grains. 



After thorough mixing of the bulk sample, a quantity of seeds equaling 

 the weight of 12i{. or even 25 BB shots may be taken for the test sample. 



