70 EXPERBIEXT STATION. [Jan. 



conditions, and the percentage is Ly no means a constant factor 

 from year to year. It is often impossible to obtain seeds any- 

 when? in the world that will come np to the standard required 

 for germinal ion bv these arbitrary laws, and the question is, 

 " \Yhat are the farmer and seedsman going to do in such 

 cases ? " We are strongly of the opinion that the time is not 

 ripe for a severe seed law, at least in this section, and we ques- 

 tion whether it would not be better at present to restrain by 

 publicity the dealer who persists in selling poor seeds rather 

 than hold him to a standard impossible to comply with. 



The seed situation in a nutshell is this: the purchaser has 

 a right to know what he is buying, therefore the seedsman 

 should give some guarantee of what he is selling. The sale 

 of adulterated seeds should be prohibited by law, and if all 

 packages of the more important varieties of seeds containing 

 over 5 pounds were to have a guarantee label, and if samples 

 were tested each year and the results made public through some 

 official publication, the moral effect would be good. 



Many of the State seed laws which have been adopted at the 

 present time appear to us to be failures. A glance at the re- 

 sults of official analyses of seeds of various States which have 

 these laws shows that a very large percentage do not come up 

 to the standard, many being far from it, and prosecutions in 

 these States are so rare that it is difficult to find them. We 

 question very much whether the purity of seeds or the stand- 

 ard of germination have been very much improved in those 

 States where these laws have been passed. If some of these 

 laws were strictly enforced it would drive most of the seed 

 dealers out of business, and many of them are of course very 

 reliable and honest men. A great many, as we know from 

 personal experience, take the greatest pains in selecting the 

 best and highest grade seeds on the market, although of course 

 there are many dealers who care little about the grade of seed 

 they sell. They buy the poorest seed obtainable, catering to 

 the farmer who wants to get seed as cheaply as possible, regard- 

 less of its quality. Here the farmer is largely to blame. 



The seed laws passed up to this time expressly emphasize 

 seed purity and germination. It is well known that these are 



