84 FOKAGE CEOPS IN DENMARK 



(named) firm showed an appreciable deficiency in both respects. 

 The total quantity of seed controlled that year was 92,955 cwts. ; 

 2712 cwts. were found deficient, but most of the compensations 

 due were small. A full list of the percentages of purity and 

 germination by each of the thirteen firms for each of the 

 twenty-seven kinds of seed is also given. 



It is interesting to see, in the same annual report, the result 

 of analyses of samples bought from farmers all over the country, 

 of parcels of seed from smaller and larger firms who seldom or 

 never subject themselves to a control such as the one just 

 explained. The samples were procured by the officers of the 

 large Provincial Associations of Agricultural Societies. In all 

 378 samples of nineteen different kinds of seed were sent in to 

 the Seed Testing Station. In the case of 134 samples the firms 

 had stated the purity and germination which they guaranteed, 

 in the case of the remainder it was assumed that the seller had 

 guaranteed a purity and germination equal to the averages of 

 all samples tested in the previous year. The results are grouped 

 like those of the 2186 samples mentioned above.* The figures 

 below show the number of samples showing deficiency in 

 purity of : 



Per cent. : 2-3 3-5 5-8 8-13 13 or more. 

 Numbers: 21 35 23 14 11 



and the numbers of samples showing deficiency in germin- 

 ation : 



Per cent. : 3-4 4-6 6-9 9-15 15-30 30 or more. 

 Numbers: 2 27 27 47 34 17 



In 104 samples, or 28 per cent., the deficiency in purity was 

 such that the purchaser should have had compensation, and 

 in 154 samples, or 41 per cent., the same applies to the germina- 

 tion test. In all 195 samples, or 52 per cent, of the total 

 number fell short of the quality of ordinary good seed, while 

 only 3-5 and 5*2 per cent, of the samples taken under the scheme 

 of automatic control were deficient in purity and germination re- 

 spectively. Many of the 378 samples contained many more seeds 

 of weed than generally found. In 1 91 5-1 6, therefore, there were 

 several farmers so negligent that they would buy inferior, impure 



