in the laboratory. Of this number, 690 samples were collected by the state 

 inspectors and will be reported in Station Bulletin 396; 1583 samples were 

 sent in by seed dealers in compliance with the clause in the New Hampshire 

 seed law which requires that all vegetable and agricultural seed must have 

 been tested for germination within nine months of being offered for sale. 

 Therefore, much of this testing was seed carried over from the previous sea- 

 son. A few of these samples were sent in by farmers who had grown beans, 

 squash, muskmelon, or rye and wished to sell it for seed. 



General referee testing has been conducted on samples sent from a central 

 source to all official seed testing laboratories, while regional referee samples 

 were sent out again this year from our laboratory to the thirteen official 

 laboratories in the country — sometimes to compare the interpretations of 

 the cooperating laboratories, sometimes to obtain a large number of figures 

 from which to arrive at standards for various seeds, and sometimes to gain 

 the benefit of having many laboratories work on a new problem such as the 

 germination of pelleted seed or the handling of treated seed. 



Bessie Sanborn 



Inspection of Commercial Fertilizers — 1951. 



A total of 114 samples of mixed fertilizers and fertilizer materials, repre- 

 senting products of twenty manufacturers, was submitted to the laboratory 

 by the Control Supervisor of the Department of Agriculture for analysis. Of 

 this number sixty-eight represented complete fertilizers, ten phosphoric acid 

 and potash, and the balance represented single-ingredient fertilizer materials. 



Of the 114 brands sampled, sixty-four equalled or exceeded all guaran- 

 tees. Deficiencies, when found, were in most cases small and were usually 

 more, than offset by over-run in other constituents. The fertilizer should, of 

 course, meet the guarantee on all counts to avoid unbalance in the effect for 

 which it is designed. 



Detailed data appears in Bulletin 391, dated September 1951. 



H. A. Davis 



Inspection of Commercial Feedingstuffs 1951-52. 



The control Supervisor of the Department of Agriculture submitted 704 

 samples, representing products of 125 manufacturers, to the laboratory for 

 analysis during the fiscal year 1951-52. These samples represented all classes 

 of feedingstuffs including cat and dog foods. 



Of these samples, 12.7 percent contained less than the guaranteed amount 

 of protein, 8.8 percent less than the guaranteed amount of fat, and 4.3 per- 

 cent contained crude fiber in excess of the guarantee. These findings compare 

 favorably with those of recent years. 



Detailed data appear in Bulletin 393, July 1952. 



H. A. D.avis 



Soil Testing. 



During the last fiscal year, 2310 miscellaneous soils have been analyzed 

 for available nutrients and pH value entailing 18,480 individual determina- 

 tions. 



G. P. Percival 



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