SEED TESTING WITH THE JACOBSEN GERMINATING 

 APPARATUS AT THE DANISH SEED CONTROL 



STATION 



Translation by J. A. Larsen^ 



The Danish Seed Control Station at Copenhagen is now the 

 oldest institution of its kind in the world. It was organized as a 

 private enterprise by E. Moller Hoist in 1871 and taken over by 

 the Danish Government in 1891. The committee of five by which 

 it is governed is representative and comprises one member of the 

 legislature, one farmer, one seed merchant, and two others having 

 expert knowledge in matters pertaining to seed. Its main object 

 is to provide the farmers, seed breeders and seed merchants 

 with information as to the quality of seeds which they have 

 to use or sell. 



The work is done in a special building at No. 15 Biilows vei, 

 Copenhagen V, under Director Herr. K. Dorph-Petersen, three 

 chief assistants, six assistants and up to twenty temporary as- 

 sistants as the work demands. That this is at times considerable 

 may be gathered from the fact that the Station has tested an 

 average of over 4,000 samples per annum since 1891. 



A complete analysis of the seed embraces a determination of 

 the genuineness, purity per cent, weight, vitality and germinative 

 power. Genuineness is usually determined by comparison with 

 standard samples, or in doubtful cases by measurements, micro- 

 scopic examination or raising plants. Purity per cent is obtained 

 by mixing the sample well, spreading it out upon a flat surface by 

 shaking so that every seed touches the plane, and then remov- 

 ing at will two or more sectors which are weighed and hand 

 picked, whereupon the amount of clean seed and the various kinds 

 of extraneous material such as pieces of plants, earth, gravel, 

 broken seeds, weed seeds, etc., are separately determined. By 

 clean seed is meant all uninjured seeds of the species in question 

 whether large or small. 



Three separate samples of 200 seeds each are counted from the 

 carefully mixed sample, weighed separately and their mean mul- 

 tiplied by five to obtain the weight of 1,000. In case any of the 



'Forest Examiner, Priest River Experiment Station, Idaho. 



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