354 COMMON WEEDS 



(Farmers Magazine, February 1869), the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society Committee says : < . . . Everything 

 is thus thrown upon the honesty of the dealer. He 

 fixes the prices, regulates the quality, and the purchaser 

 is kept in the dark, and has no check upon either. 

 This is a temptation beyond what the average frailty 

 of human nature ought in fairness to be exposed. . . . 

 One of the chief functions of the association (of whole- 

 sale seedsmen) is ... the regulation of prices . . . 

 and the determination as to what kinds of seeds should 

 have their average lowered and to what extent it 

 should be done.' With honourable exceptions, trade 

 catalogues offered in addition to ' nett ' or pure seed 

 ' trio ' seed, i.e. seed killed for admixture purposes ! 

 The Act of 1869 made the admixture of killed seed an 

 offence, but did not provide machinery for the detec- 

 tion of the offence, as is now the case for artificial 

 manures and feeding stuffs under the Fertilisers and 

 Feeding Stuffs Act of 1893 (now superseded by the Act of 

 1906). 



" The revelations of fraud and ignorance published 

 in 1875 by Nobbe in his Handbuch der Samenkunde led 

 to vigorous action, and Seed -testing Stations were 

 started in nearly every country in the world, mostly 

 under Government control. At the present time there 

 are some 150." 



Important Official Seed-testing Stations now exist in 

 Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Hun- 

 gary, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States of 

 America, Canada, New Zealand, the Australian Colonies, 

 and the South African Colonies. The work done by 

 these " Control " stations, as they are termed, is of the 

 utmost importance, and of inestimable value to agri- 

 culturists, gardeners, and others. 



