SEED INSPECTION 63 



Quality of Onion Seed Produced in the Connecticut Valley, Season of 



1935 



From time to time, small amounts of onion seed have been grown by onion 

 farmers in the Connecticut Valley. In general, however, the amounts produced 

 have been less than a hundred pounds per grower and for personal use rather 

 than for a market commodity. 



High price for seed grown in 1934 to be planted in 1935 led farmers to produce 

 more home-grown seed in 1935 than heretofore. 



Locally-produced onion seed, tested at the Massachusetts Experiment Station 

 Laboratory for germination, has never been of better than average quality, with 

 much of it so low in viability as to be of questionable value. Such information 

 as could be secured from the farmers who send in locally-produced onion seed, 

 led to the inference that low viability is often due to incorrect methods of har- 

 vesting, drying, and cleaning the seed. 



The common method of cleaning seed on the farm is to thresh by beating 

 quantities of the seed capsules, contained in three-quarter-filled grain bags. 

 Coarse stems and fragments of the fruit are then removed by screens, and the 

 finer impurities and light seed separated by winnowing. The seed with the 

 remaining impurities is then plunged into tubs containing water, stirred to 

 remove air and, when the heavy seed have settled to the bottom, the lighter 

 seed and floating impurities are skimmed off or removed by decanting. The 

 remaining pure seed is then dried by various means before storing or planting. 

 In general, this method is similar to that employed by the commercial grower, 

 except that in onion-seed producing areas the climate favors thorough drying 

 of the seed spread out, after floating, on canvas exposed to the air and sunshine. 



The ten lots of seed received were threshed by rubbing between two sheets of 

 corrugated rubber matting. The threshed material was then screened to re- 

 m.ove dust and finer particles of plant substance, and the remainder cleaned in 

 a Eureka Sample Testing Separator. This machine is a combination of screens 

 and air blast, removing unthreshed seed and delivering a heavy grade of cleaned 

 seed, which is here designated No. 1, as well as a lighter grade containing some 

 of the heavier impurities. This lighter grade was again run through the machine 

 submitting it to a heavier air blast than No. 1. This resulted in Grades No. 2 

 and No. 3. Usually the No. 3 grade contained impurities which could be 

 removed by again running through the machine with a still heavier air blast. 

 In a few instances, it was possible to break the seed down into 1, 2 and 3 grades 

 or more, by this process. In several instances, only a grade No. 2 or 3 remained 

 as pure cleaned seed — although in one instance five grades were procured. In 

 several instances, the last grade separated contained impurities which could 

 only be removed by floating the product in buckets of water. In these instances, 

 the light seed and debris were thus removed and the remaining portion dried 

 for several hours in screened-bottom metal trays over steam radiators. Samples 

 of seed from each of the various grades derived from each lot of seed, according 

 to this method of separation, were submitted to a laboratory test for viability. 



Since our various grades of seed are really determined on the basis of weight. 

 Grade 1 is made up of the heaviest seed in the sample, and progressively each 

 succeeding grade is made up of lighter seed. It is interesting to note that in 

 most instances, the heavier seed in any particular lot show the highest viability 

 and the lowest grade oftentimes a viability so low as to throw considerable 

 doubt upon the practicability of using this grade in production. As cleaned 



