CIRCULAR No. 34. 203 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., February 17, 1897. 



RULES AND APPARATUS FOR SEED TESTING. 



The testing of seeds with reference to their purity and vitality was 

 inaugurated by Prof. F. Nobbe, of Tharand, Saxony, nearly thirty years 

 ago. The methods which he worked out are used with more or less 

 modification in numerous experiment stations established for seed 

 investigation and control in Germany and other European countries. 

 A number of the agricultural experiment stations in this country have 

 devoted more or less attention to this line of work. The importance 

 and value of systematic tests of seed under scientific control have been 

 clearly demonstrated, and the necessity for the establishment of methods 

 and regulations suited to American conditions has been more apparent 

 as the work has developed in this country. Recently a special labora- 

 tory for seed investigations has been established in the Division of 

 Botany of this Department. Its investigations have already greatly 

 contributed to the working out of American standards for seed testing. 



With a view to encouraging cooperation between the Department and 

 the experiment stations in formulating methods of procedure for seed 

 testing in different parts of the country, a memorial signed by a majority 

 of the experiment station directors was presented to the Association of 

 American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations at. the con- 

 vention held in Washington in November, 1896, requesting the appoint- 

 ment of a "committee of experts in seed testing to devise and adopt a 

 standard form of seed- testing apparatus and method of procedure for 

 use in all American stations." Responding to this memorial, the asso- 

 ciation ordered the appointment of a committee to formulate rules for 

 seed testing which might be published for the guidance of the stations 

 during the ensuing year and reported to the association at its next 

 annual meeting for any further action deemed advisable at that time. 



The committee appointed was Dr. E. II. Jenkins, vice-director of the 

 Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; Mr. G. H. Hicks, in. 

 charge of pure seed investigations of the Division of Botany of this 

 Department; Mr. Gerald McCarthy, botanist of the North Carolina 



1 



