ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 759 



This should be separated into plump, well-filled, large grains and shriv- 

 eled, small grains. 



While making this separation the presence or absence of bunt, or dis- 

 eased grains, should 'be noted. Such grains are somewhat above the aver- 

 age size of the best grains, brown in color, soft, and show a blackened 

 interior when broken open. Seed fit for sowing should be plump and well 

 filled; it should show at least 99 per cent purity and 99 per cent 

 viability in three days and be free from bunt. 



The noxious weed seeds found in wheat include: Wild oat, chess, 

 darnel, quack-grass, dock, black bindweed, Russian thistle, corn cockle, 

 cow cockle, pennycress, field peppergrass, false flax, ball mustard, black 

 mustard, English charlock, Indian mustard, hares ear mustard, tumbling 

 mustard, field bindweed, corn gromwell, ragweed, the similar (but larger) 

 seeds of giant ragweed, wild sunflower, Canada thistle, bull thistle, and 

 the whitish or pinkish bulblets of wild garlic which are sometimes very 

 abundant in wheat grown in the eastern states. 



Other weed seeds occurring in wheat include many of those found 

 in forage-crop seeds. This is particularly true of wheat which has been 

 poorly cleaned. 



A test of a poor grade of wheat along the lines suggested should con- 

 vince any farmer of the value of the fanning mills and suitable screens 

 used in grading seed wheat. 



TESTING SEED OATS AND BARLEY. 



Seed of oats and barley may be tested in general as outlined for wheat. 

 In testing oats especial attention should be given to the possible presence 

 of seed of wild oat, which can be recognized by its brown color, the 

 brown hairs at the base of the seed, the bent awn at the back, and espec- 

 ially by the expanded, cup-shaped scar at the base of the seed. 



The purity of oats and barley should reach 99 per cent, the viability 

 at least 95 per cent for oats and 98 or 99 per cent for barley. 



In general the weed seeds appearing in wheat may be expected to 

 appear in poorly cleaned oats and barley. 



TESTING FLAX SEED. 



Properly cleaned flax seed should be practically free from impurities, 

 thus showing a purity of nearly 100 per cent. The viability should reach 

 99 per cent or higher in two or three days. Both domestic and im- 

 ported seed are in the market. Poorly cleaned grades contain many 

 kinds of weed seeds which, in general, include most of those found in mil- 

 let seed and in wheat. In a test of flax seed especial attention should 

 be given to the discovery of seed of flax dodder. Some of these dodder 

 seeds are double and thus fail to pass a sieve which will remove most of 

 the single seeds. Fairly well-cleaned lots of flax seed are thus likely 

 to contain these double seeds of dodder. Much of the imported flax 

 seed contains seed of flax dodder. The very destructive nature of this 

 dodder justifies every effort to prevent the introduction of its seed. Seed 

 of false flax is a common noxious impurity which should be avoided. 



