BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 63 



and Atriplex has been completed, but that on the grasses can not be 

 completed this year. This work will be continued in connection with 

 the seed collection, and it is planned to prepare careful descriptions 

 and illustrations of the seeds of the pi incipal economic plants and 

 of weeds. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE ORIGIN OF SEED. 



Work on the relative value of clover seed grown in the different 

 States and in foreign countries was carried on last year in cooperation 

 with nine experiment stations. In our trial grounds the results were 

 the same as those observed during the previous year's investigations. 

 The plants grown from European seed were utterly unable to with- 

 stand our hot sun, and while they made some growth during the cooler 

 spring weather, they ceased growing, and even to a considerable extent 

 dried up, as soon as the intense heat of summer set in. The prelimi- 

 nary reports so far received from the cooperating stations indicate that 

 the same was true in other parts of the country. This work will be 

 carried on for one year more, when it will be considered completed. 



NEW WORK IN THE PURE-SEED INVESTIGATIONS. 



During the current year it is planned to complete some of the 

 investigations undertaken last year and to carry on the regular work 

 of seed testing, besides conducting investigations on the growing, 

 harvesting, and curing of orchard-grass seed and of redtop seed. 

 Some studies will also be undertaken of the temperatures in the 

 upper 3 inches of the soil during the time when seeds are actually 

 germinating. This work will be made to apply in the first instance 

 to clover seed, since the importance to the Eastern farmer of getting 

 a stand of clover is too great to permit of the subject being longer 

 neglected. The work will be carried on under the direction of com- 

 petent assistants in various parts of the country, as may be found 

 necessary. Another line of work will be on the treating and preserv- 

 ing of seeds. The difficulty of preserving the germiiiative power of 

 certain common seeds, as Kafir corn, soj^ beans, etc., makes it advis- 

 able to investigate the methods of growing and storing these seeds, 

 since there is no doubt that with more careful treatment the germi- 

 nating quality can be considerably improved, insuring a better stand 

 and less danger of failure when the seeds are planted. The treatment 

 of seeds to guard against disease, as in the case of sugar-beet seed and 

 of oats and other cereals, will also be investigated, more especially 

 from the standpoint of the effect of such treatment on the seed. 

 European investigations have shown that it is possible to detect the 

 presence of the disease germ in sugar-beet seed before it is planted. 

 The great increase of the sugar-beet industry in America makes it 

 imperative that we should be in a position to test this seed not only 

 for purity and germination, but also for the presence of disease 

 germs, in cooperation with the Pathologist and Physiologist of the 

 Bureau. 



The exorbitant price asked for the seed of hairy vetch, and the fact 

 that the Department explorers have called attention to a number of 

 promising leguminous plants, the seeds of which are not on the mar- 

 ket, make it desirable that systematic work be done to determine 

 whether seeds of these plants can be profitably and cheaply raised in 

 some part of the United States. That this must be done before these 

 plants can find popular acceptance is self-evident, since few farmers 



