213 HOW TO PROCURE GOOD SEEDS. 



Notwitlistandino- the laws enacted, and care taken, it is by no 

 means easy to secure good seeds true to name. 



Mr. De Laune, in Jour. Royal Ag. Soc, in 1882, says: •'How- 

 ever careful I was in my orders, and from whatever seed-market 

 I ordered my seeds ; the percentage of rye grass, soft woolly 

 grass, and other bad grasses and weeds, was beyond all belief. 

 I learned that good seed was most difficult to get. I consulted 

 the botaiiist, and to ni}' great amazement was told that my seed 

 bought for meadow fescue was all rye grass, and the rough 

 meadow grass was all smooth meadow grass. I have, since these 

 experiments, never sown any seed except after the sample had 

 been examined by the consulting botanist ; and have, in conse- 

 quence, obtained results most satisfactory to m3'self. I have 

 found it necessary to examine seeds from different j^arts of every 

 sack. I regret to say that there is no seed-merchant I would 

 trust without the seed Avas examined by the consulting botanist." 

 And yet r. leading seedsman in England says : " The seedsman 

 should be treated with mucli the same sort of confidence as the 

 family doctor.*' 



Doubtless my readers Avill be glad to see the following quota- 

 tion from the Annual Report of the consulting botanist, — W. 

 Caruthers, of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1884: 



"During the past year I have examined vOl samples of seeds 

 for the members of the society, besides rej)l}ing to inquiries 

 regarding the nature, habits, and names of weeds, and the best 

 way of dealing with them ; the diseases of cultivated plants ; and 

 to various matters affecting the crops of the farm. I have 

 examined 69 samples of meadow fescue, and 46 of tall fescue, in 

 all 115 samples, as compared Avith 85 in the previous year. Sixty- 

 five per cent of the samples of meadoAV fescue were free from 

 Aveeds and seeds of other grasses, as against 26 per cent of last 

 year. The princi])al adulterant employed is ryegrass; but the 



