MICROSCOPE AND AGRICULTURE 



ago a deputation urged the Government to establish 

 a National Seed Testing Station; no further plans 

 have been made, however. Seed testing is very 

 interesting work, every seed has its particular shape 

 and markings and the student soon becomes ab- 

 sorbed in seeking for weed seeds among the col- 

 lections he examines. A weed in the sense we use 

 it here is not necessarily a harmful plant, it is a 

 plant in the wrong place. For example a carrot 

 growing in a field of turnips, though a useful plant 

 would be a weed. When the farmer sowed turnip 

 seed he did not do so with the object of raising 

 carrots. 



The only apparatus necessary for the study of 

 most farm seeds is a powerful magnifying glass, 

 one that will enlarge the seeds ten diameters or 

 more. When beginning this work, a difficulty 

 occurs at once for, without assistance from an 

 expert, it is by no means easy to learn the names 

 of the seeds one examines. The difficulty can be 

 overcome to a certain extent if we know the names 



i of flowers, for then we can collect the seeds from 

 these flowers and we shall have properly named 



j specimens as a guide. Beginning in this way, we 

 shall soon find that the seeds can be arranged in 

 groups and there will then be no difficulty in 

 recognising say clover seed or grass seed, though 

 much more experience will be necessary before we 

 can say to which kind of clover or grass the seed 

 belongs. 

 Many oC these seeds are well worth studying, 

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