78 FAEM ECHOES. 



dealers, and the investigation revealed the following 

 facts : The average per cent, of pure seed in commercial 

 samples was fifty -nine. Of this fifty-nine per cent. , only 

 eighteen per cent, was capable of germinating. One 

 sample of orchard grass contained the seeds of forty-five 

 other plants. Another contained ninety-five per cent, 

 of dead seed. Three tons of seed sold as red clover con- 

 tained two tons of yellow clover. Old seeds were reno- 

 vated by boiling, dyeing, roasting. Weed seeds were 

 stained and used to adulterate lots of expensive seeds. 

 He discovered that in Bohemia and elsewhere large fac- 

 tories for the manufacture of seeds were running, with 

 warehouses at Hamburg and other commercial centers. 

 " No one unsuspecting would detect this adulteration 

 even if practised to the extent of twenty-five per cent. 

 In Bavaria and Austria women and children were em- 

 ployed to gather weed seeds from the roadsides and 

 ditches, which were shipped to England, sorted and sold 

 as grass seeds. American seeds were also examined, and 

 with results almost equally astonishing. For instance : A 

 sample of red clover seed contained no less than fourteen 

 thousand four hundred foreign seeds in a pound. These 

 foreign seeds were of forty-four distinct species, among 

 them thistle, sorrel, milkweed, dandelion, knot-weed, 

 burdock, darnel, goose grass, blue weed, wild carrot, ox- 

 eye daisy, pig-weed, chick-weed, and dodder. The sam- 

 ples of American seeds, however, for the most part bore 

 favorable comparison with the European specimens. 

 Summing up the results of his investigations, Professor 

 Nobbe said that American grasses contain, on the average, 

 seventy-nine per cent, of pure seeds, while the average in 



