Grade. 

 Date.. 



EXERCISE 22 



SEED ANALYSIS 



Object. To analyze clover, alfalfa, millet or timothy seed for purity. 



Directions. Dip out a rounded teaspoonful * from the sample which 

 you test for germination. Spread this out on a sheet of white paper and 

 with the aid of a hand lens place the whole, plump seed in one pile and the 

 foreign matter, which includes shriveled seed, broken seed, dirt, weed seeds 

 and other trash in other piles. Count each kind of seed, if there are more 

 than two or three, and by using the " Table of Weed Seed Weights" figure 

 the percentage of each kind of weed seed and write percentages into the anal- 

 ysis. Add percentages to get total percentage of weed seeds. Estimate and 

 write in percentage of dirt, inert matter and poor seeds. Subtract these 

 percentages from 100 to get the percentage of pure seed. 



Note. The instructor may put into the samples any weeds or other 

 foreign matter with which he wishes the class to become familiar. . 



References. Testing Farm Seeds in the Home and Rural School. 

 U. S. D. A. Farmers' Bui. 428. Cunningham, J. C. and Lancelot, W. H., 

 1915, Soils and Plant Life (Macmillan) 261-266. 



Table of Weed Seed Weights ** 



In the first column of numbers below is given the number of seeds of each of the common weeds, 

 required to make one per cent of a rounded teaspoonful of clover or alfalfa seed; in the second column are 

 the numbers of seeds of the respective weeds required to make one per cent of a sample of the same size 

 of timothy or millet seed: 



* A rounded teaspoonful of clover or alfalfa weighs 5 grams. A rounded teaspoonful 

 of timothy or millet weighs 4 grams. 



** From Weeds of the Farm and Garden. L. H. Pammel. 



