THE PLANT 



79 



certain weed seeds are so nearly like certain crop seeds 

 that the weed seeds are not easily recognized by the eye. 

 Thus, for example, the dodder or "love vine," which so 

 often ruins the clover 

 crop, has seeds closely 

 resembling clover 

 seeds. The chess, or 

 cheat, has seeds so 

 nearly like oats that 

 only a close observer 

 can tell them apart. 

 However, if you watch 

 the seeds that you buy 

 and study the appear- 

 ance of crop seeds, 

 you may become very 

 expert in recognizing 

 seeds that have no 



Tube i represents one pound of redtop grass as 



place in your planting. b^t ; Tube 2, amount of pure redtop grass 



seeds in Tube i ; Tube 3, amount of chaff and 

 dirt in Tube i ; Tube 4, amount of weed seeds 

 in Tube i ; Tube 5, amount of total waste in 

 Tube i ; Tube 6, amount of pure germinable 



3 4 

 FIG. 62 



seed in Tube i 



I know of one 

 instance where a seed 

 dealer intentionally 

 allowed an impurity of 

 30 per cent to remain in the crop seeds, and this impurity 

 was mainly of weed seeds. There were 450,000 of one 

 kind and 288,000 of another in each pound of seed. 

 Think of planting weeds at that rate! Sometimes three 

 fourths of the seeds you buy are weed seeds. 



In purchasing seeds the only safe plan is to buy of 

 dealers whose reputation can be relied upon. 



