SEED CONTROL. 61 



clovers, rapidly lose their bright color with age ; hence in some 

 instances the color test, to the eyes of an expert, is very use- 

 ful. However, the most practised eye is readily deceived in this 

 respect. 



In the matter of vitality the buyer of seed is at a great dis- 

 advantage. The dealer usually claims that with proper condi- 

 tions seed of a considerable age will germinate well. If one 

 purchases seed and it does not come up, the seedsman coolly 

 tells him that it was not the fault of the seed, but of the manner 

 of planting, state of the weather, etc. Most of them in their 

 catalogues take particular pains to emphasize this statement. 

 The dealer says liis seed is good, for he has carefully tested it 

 and knows its viability. 



Furthermore, the seedsman tells us that, on account of the 

 lively competition in the trade, no man can afford to sell seed of 

 a poor germinating quality, since he would lose his business. 

 How is it, then, that so much badly germinating seed is sold to 

 American farmers ? This question is not so difficult to answer 

 as one might think. 



The seedsman is in the business for what he can get out of it ; 

 he has seed to sell, not to throw away. Like people in all other 

 kinds of trade, he is often caught at the close of the season with 

 much old stock on his hands. Does he test this at the beginning 

 of the next season, and, finding that the germination has de. 

 creased ten or twenty, perhaps fifty per cent, sell it to the 

 farfner at a corresponding reduction ? There may be such 

 instances, but they are certainly the exception and not the rule. 



On the other hand, like a grocer or merchant in the same pre- 

 dicament, the seedsman frequently works off his old stock to the 

 best advantage. This is a common practice, and it is no secret at 

 all among the trade. One of the most prominent clover seed 

 dealers in the United States admitted to me that he sold old clover 

 seed in this way. In other words, if it was not too old he made no 

 discrimination to ordinary customers, but if he found that its 

 germinating power was pretty low he mixed it with fresh seed 

 in whatever proportions it would stand. I have talked with 

 quite a number of seedsmen in the country upon this point, and 

 have yet to learn of one who throws away all of his old seed or 

 sells it to the public at a lower price. 



Of course, seedsmen themselves do not pay as much for old 



