6 N. II. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 215 



wrong pail or dumped a bag in the wrong bin may be a 

 rather serious violation of the law. There is not much 

 room to suppose that a dealer would purposely mix red 

 clover with Hungarian millet. The clover costs much more 

 either by the pound or by the quart. From the farmer's 

 standpoint, however, the clover would not be a very desir- 

 able adultei"ant to have in the millet. The clover would 

 not be very conspicuous, and, even if noticed with the Hun- 

 garian, could hardly be separated economically by hand ; it 

 certainly would not contribute largely to the farmer's suc- 

 cess if sown half and half under the impression that a full 

 seeding of millet was being made under proper conditions 

 for a hot season crop. Nature is very impersonal and gives 

 the farmer credit only in proportion to his ability to do the 

 right thing at the right time ; the State law is also imper- 

 sonal to the extent of allowing no plea of carelessness or 

 ignorance to cloud the fact that the sale of a mixture of red 

 clover and Hungarian millet is a violation of both the letter 

 and the spirit of the law. This illustration is given simply 

 to call attention to the probability that some few cases of 

 adulteration are doubtless due to carelessness on the part 

 of the retailer. 



Any crop seed that becomes mixed with another in 

 sufficient quantities to constitute more than 5 per cent of 

 the whole by weight not only reduces the percentage of 

 purity by that much but automatically causes the seed to 

 become a "mixture." The State law requires that such a 

 mixture shall bear a statement giving the name and per- 

 centage of each and every kind of agricultural seed con- 

 tained therein in excess of 5 per cent. This applies to lawn 

 seed mixtures, hay mixtures, pasture mixtures, etc. It is 

 a very important regulation which is often violated. 



Some of our most common and necessary field seeds 

 are expensive and at the same time easily adulterated with 

 worthless or inferior seeds of a similar size, form, and 

 color. Nothing about the appearance of seed will neces- 



