98 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9I3. 



4 of these were passed as being in substanital accord with the 

 guaranty. All parts of the State were visited. The stock in 

 the hands of dealers, large and small, were generally examined. 

 Out of over 1200 samples only 5 were appreciah'ly below the 

 guaranteed percentage of purity. Not only were the seeds 

 practically all up to guaranty but for the most part all of the 

 seeds sold in the State carry a high percentage of purity. The 

 improvement in the qualit}^ of seed used in Maine in the past 

 fifteen years is as gratifying as it is marvelous. It is safe to 

 say that no other State is uniformly using as good seed as 

 Maine. In fact the wholesale dealers and cleaners of seed 

 claim that if all the States were as particular in their demands 

 for seed of high quality there would not be enough to go 

 around. 



Seeds Sold Unlawfully. 



A few instances of unguaranteed seeds on sale were found 

 and 5 lots were sufficiently below guaranty to warrant taking 

 up the matter of adulteration. After investigation it was 

 found necessary to prosecute in a few instances. The fines 

 were paid and the cases are closed. 



At a store in Aroostook county seed was found which came 

 from W. H. Small & Co. of Evansville, Indiana. The bags 

 were all marked with guarantees of purity. A seed branded 

 "Climax Alsike. Guaranteed 95 to 98 per cent pure" might be a 

 little misleading to a purchaser as the high mark of 98 appears 

 and yet the seed might only be 95 per cent pure. In fact it is 

 not guaranteed to be above 95 per cent pure. A sample of this 

 alsike was taken to the laboratory and found to be 93.5 per 

 cent pure, which is below the guaranty. 



A dealer in the western part of the State had seeds which 

 he bought from the Whitney-Eckstein Seed Co. of Buffalo, N. 

 Y., and which at the time the inspector called were unguaran- 

 teed. The dealer sent to the Station a price list from this seed 

 house which had printed on it : "Increase your sales by han- 

 dling our leading brands. Their purity is considerably above 

 any legislative requirement." This means nothing to the Maine 

 trade as there are no standards. The law simply requires that 

 seeds shall be marked plainly with the names of seeds and the 



