820 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK ix. 



as to prepare a clean seed-bed for the reception of a bad sample of 



seed. 



SELECTION OF SEED. It is, in one respect, unfortunate that the 

 quantity of seed, measured by the number of individual specimens in a 

 single purchase, is so great that there is much danger lest the quality 

 be overlooked. There are at least three prominent factors involved in 

 the idea of quality ; these are (1) germinating capacity, (2) freedom 

 from impurities, (3) trueness to species. The germinating capacity is 

 easily determined by counting out 100 seeds from the sample, and 

 placing them under conditions favourable to germination, as upon a 

 roof-tile standing to half its depth of water in a dish ; then by counting 

 the number that " strike " to use a gardener's term the capacity for 

 germination is at once indicated as a percentage. It will usually be 

 found that if several trials be made from the same sample a certain 

 degree of variation is observable, but, as a rule, the trial made with the 

 first hundred seeds counted out is a fair and reliable test, though it is 

 more so in some cases than in others. Obviously the larger the 

 number of seeds submitted to the test the greater is the value of the 

 result, and it can always be expressed as a percentage. At the New 

 York Agricultural Experiment Station some germinating trials were 

 made of, in this case, cabbage seed from the various crops of the year 

 1885. In all, 32,800 seeds taken from 164 different samples of 

 cabbage seed were placed under conditions favourable to germination, 

 and 25,150 seeds germinated. This is equivalent to 76'7 per cent., 

 but, as a matter of fact, the germinating capacity of seeds from the 

 different samples ranged from as low as 48' 1 to as high as 94*7 per 

 cent. The former result was abnormally low, the next above it being 

 56, and the next 68 per cent. According to the regulations of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England the germination of cereals, 

 green crops, clovers, and timothy grass should be not less than 90 per 

 cent. ; of foxtail not less than 60 per cent. ; of other grasses not less 

 than 70 per cent. 



The impurities in a sample of seed demand the most careful 

 attention on the part of a purchaser. They may be classed as harmless 

 and injurious. Under the former head would come fragments of 

 earth, stone, and vegetable matter, and also dead seeds; the latter 

 would include seeds of weeds and of certain parasites. A buyer need 

 not worry himself about the harmless impurities, they merely mean 

 so much less good seed. Suppose a sample to contain, say, as much 

 as 5 per cent, of these harmless impurities, then in purchasing 20 Ib. 

 of such seed the buyer would get 19 Ib. good seed and 1 Ib. rubbish, 

 the latter costing as much per Ib. as the seed. The more difficult that 

 seeds are to clean for the market the more likely are they to contain 

 objectionable impurities. On the other hand, the more thoroughly 

 seeds are cleaned, the higher is the price the seedsman is bound to 

 charge to recompense him for the expense of cleaning. The question 

 for a buyer is simply whether the extra purity of the sample is worth 

 the extra money asked. And the most practical way to answer this 



