Annual Report -5- 



All C.A. apple storages were registered with this Division, 

 assigned a number, and air constitutents of each room were checked 

 by our inspectors in conjtinction with daily records kept by the 

 operator. These checks were made at least once a month for the 

 required 90 days to attest the rooms' compliance with our State 

 C.A. Laws and so to merit the controlled atmosphere label* 



January was the start of seed inspection, sampling both 

 package flower and vegetable seeds shipped into the state and seeds 

 shipped directly to florists and market gardeners. 



As spring started to open up, shipments of agricultural 

 seeds, including grass mixtures, began to appear, these were added 

 to the inspectors' pickup list and so a good cross-section of all 

 types of seed being sold in the state representing all wholesalers 

 were soon sampled and forwarded to the official Seed Laboratory at 

 the University of Massachusetts. Here they were checked for true- 

 ness to type, germination and performance. If any irregularities 

 were discovered the lots in question were removed from sale* 

 At the same time inspectors were sampling state institutions and 

 divisiorfs seed purchases and sending them to the laboratory for 

 analysis. A total of 8lO official seed samples were drawn by our 

 licensed seed inspectors and sent to the Seed Laboratory for test- 

 ing and analysis. This was a marked decline over the previous 

 sampling year due to one factor, a shortage of manpower. As most 

 seed in Massachusetts is involved in interstate shipments, we are 

 governed by the Federal Seed Act. As a result, 73 of the 78 viola- 

 tions noted at the laboratory were referred to the Federal people 

 for further action if necessary. It is of interest to note that a 

 large percentage of these violations were found at state institu- 

 tions and we have so notified the State Purchasing Bureau, The 



