28 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



would seem Tinjust to hold seedsmen to any rigid standard, as it 

 would be likely to allect materially agricultural interests. For 

 instance, the germination percentage of Kentucky blue grass 

 ranges from 3 to 88 per cent., the average; being 54 per cent., 

 and it is a vital question to the seedsmen just what germina- 

 tion percentage the seed should have, as some of the lower per- 

 centages may be due to faulty methods. Too great pains can- 

 not be taken in testing seeds for dealers when they are to be 

 sold on merely a verbal guarantee, as there is a possibility of 

 doing them great injustice and injuring their business. 



Some of the laws which have been drawn up are rather par- 

 ticular as regards the proper identification of seeds, stating that 

 they shall be true to name, etc. But it often happens that ship- 

 ments of seeds which are purchased by seedsmen become more 

 or less mixed as labels are lost in going through the custom 

 house, and their exact identity is not always easy to determine. 



Difficulties uxderlying Identificatiox of Seeds. 



The wide variation in the results of seed germination and 

 purity has been previously touched upon in this article, and we 

 now turn to a more detailed discussion of the difficulties which 

 surround the analyst in the matter of the identification of some 

 of the more common agricultural seeds, the horticultural or 

 trade name of which varies from the true botanical name, espe- 

 cially in regard to the varietie^^. It is often found that a seed 

 which has a certain botanical name is sold in the market under 

 a distinctly different trade name ; thus a great difference of 

 opinion is found in a discussion of the seed from the legal point 

 of view. Under a great many of our existing seed laws, there- 

 fore, a wide difference of viewpoint and application may be 

 exercis(Hl without wilful misbranding by any one. 



The following table shows this to a remarkable degree. It 

 is concerned with the identification of certain agricultural seeds 

 of common occurrence, and while the identification of the seeds 

 may not be the work of the best analysts in the country, it is 

 fairly representative. 



