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RESULTS OF SEED TESTS 

 Made July 1, 1927 to June 30, 1928 



The total number of seed samples tested in the Experi- 

 ment Station laboratory this year was three hundred 

 seventy-seven. Of this number three hundred fourteen 

 were official samples which are reported in this bulletin. 

 In addition to these sixty-three private samples were test- 

 ed. The official samples were collected by an agent of the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture and sent to the seed testing 

 laboratory where purity analyses and germination tests 

 were made in order to ascertain if each sample was of as 

 good quality as its accompanying guarantee indicated. 



A certain amount of variation is to be expected in com- 

 paring the results of two or more purity analyses. For 

 this reason a "tolerance" or variation is allowed in ac- 

 cordance with the following formula, applied to the guar- 

 antee given. The sample is considered as being made up 

 of two parts, the one being the pure seed and the other 

 the balance of the sample. The tolerance in per cent al- 

 lowed for each part is two-tenths of 1 per cent plus 20 

 per cent of the lesser part. For instance, if a sample is 

 guaranteed 99.60% pure seed, it may test as low as 99.32% 

 or as high as 99.88% and would be "satisfactory". In 

 the same way, a sample guaranteed 92.80% may test as 

 low as 91.17% or as high as 94.43% and be "satisfactory". 

 If a sample is found to be better than the highest figure 

 in the tolerance, it is marked "above" in this bulletin; if 

 lower than the lowest figure, the actual figure is reported. 



A wider germination tolerance is allowed between the 

 results of the test and the guarantee, as follows: 



Guarantee Allowable variation 



% % 



90 or over 6 



80 or over but less than 90 7 



70 or over but less than 80 8 



60 or over but less than 70 9 



Less than 60 10 



