SEED TESTS. 



Made July 1, 1917, to July 1, 1918. 



The provisions of the Pure Seed Law enacted by the General 

 Court in 1909 require the publication annually of a bulletin 

 showing the results of all seed tests made officially during the 

 previous year. The administration of this law is in the hands 

 of the State Commissioner of Agriculture, who has appointed 

 the writer, Agronomist of the Experiment Station, as his regu- 

 lar agent for making all tests and analyses in this state. 



During the year ending July 1, 1918, 280 samples of seed were 

 collected and sent in for analysis by authorized representatives 

 of the Commissioner of Agriculture. These samples were se- 

 cured from fifty-five dealers, in twenty-six different towns and 

 cities of the state: These samples included 4 of alfalfa, 20 of al- 

 sike, 11 of barley, 11 of buckwheat, 24 of corn, 4 of field peas, 41 

 of millet, 14 of oats, 44 of red clover, 33 of red top, 50 of tim- 

 othy, 14 of wheat, 3 of white clover, and 7 of miscellaneous seeds. 



In the testing and analyzing of seeds, just as in the chemical 

 analysis of fertilizers, it should be remembered that there are 

 certain factors which make exact duplication of results impos- 

 sible. There are always slight variations in drawing a sample 

 of seed, in sampling the sample, and in weighing small fractional 

 parts of it ; there may be also fluctuations in the temperature 

 and humidity of the germinating chamber which may affect the  

 percentage of germination. Methods of analysis may also vary 

 somewhat. For these reasons a slight variation from the guar- 

 antee or standard, or from a previous analysis, should not be 

 considered of consequence. 



In i:»ublishing the results of this year's samples we have again 

 made use of a table of "tolerance of variation" for purity as 

 given on page 20 of the Proceedings of the Association of Official 

 Analysts for 1916-17, and which seems to afford a ver^ satisfac- 

 tory method of allowing or tolerating a reasonable variation in 

 purity tests. 



After applying the variations as given by the table to the re- 

 sults of our tests we have simply used the following terms instead 

 of stating the actual figures in the tabulations : 



"Satisfactory," meaning that the difiPerence between our test 

 and the guarantee is within the variation allowed; "Above," 

 meaning that our test, after alloAving for the variation, is above 

 the guarantee; "Below," meaning that our test, after allowing 

 for the variation, is below the guarantee. 



In the matter of germination a variation of five per cent, has 

 been allowed in the statement of results and the same terms 

 used as described above for purity. 



