SaLe AND INTRODUCTION oF IMPURE AND INFESTED SEED. 7 
It is not too much to say that no new plant should be introduced to this 
State, and not even in a private garden, if there is any chance of its 
spreading, unless an official report on its capacities for good and evil has 
been obtained, and unless the report is a favourable one. Although the 
annual loss due to weeds i is difficult to estimate, owing to its generalized 
and diffuse character, there can be no doubt that if suitable regulations 
had been in farce fifty years ago the country would now be saved an annual 
loss of several hundred thousand pounds. It must further be remembered 
that the spread of certain weeds means an immediate decrease in the capital 
value, more especially of grazing land. The first step towards stopping the 
admission of injurious alien weeds has recently been taken by the Com- 
monwealth Customs by prohibiting the entry of the seeds of nearly 100 of 
the worst weeds such as are common impurities in improperly cleaned -agri- 
cultural seeds. . 
Even at the present day, much éan be done to prevent further trouble 
by the introduction of suitable regulations for the external and internal 
trade in seeds. In regard to external trade, it might be made a punishable 
offence to import seed through the Post Office without a special permit from 
the Agricultural Department or Federal Customs, or except through the 
agency of a recognised seedsman issuing a printed catalogue approved by 
the Department. Seedsmen’s catalogues do not include plants whose 
exclusion is desirable. Certain officials would naturally be exempt 
from this provision, such as the Director and Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, the Government Botanist, the Director of the Melbourne Botanic 
_ Gardens, the heads of the Agricultural Colleges, and the Curators of recog- 
nised Botanic Gardens. Foreign packets of seeds sent in defiance of this 
regulation could be seized at the Post Office, and only forwarded if certified 
innoctous, and free from the seeds or spores of parasitic plants. 
It is, however, somewhat doubtful whether the good such regulations 
would do would sufficiently compensate for the trouble and difficulty of 
carrying them out, and it would probably suffice if public attention were 
drawn to the fact that a new obnoxious weed may be started as easily from 
‘a pinch of seed imported through the post as from a sack of seed imported 
by a seedsman, which latter is readily accessible to Customs control. 
Fodder : and packing material, discharged ballast, &c., are, for in- 
stance, beyond control, and form a common source of new alien weeds. 
Much good is to be hoped by internal regulation of the seed traffic upon 
something like the following lines:—The sale of seeds should be brought 
under similar regulations to those which apply to milk, butter, and other 
food articles. It should, for instance, be made an offence punishable by 
fine to sell or expose for sale any seed containing a prescribed percentage 
of foreign impurities, the term seed to mean the actual seed, together with 
such coverings or appendages as normally adhere to it when it falls from 
the plant. In regard to the amount of water présent in the seeds, although 
it is true that the purchaser loses when buying by weight imperfectly dried 
seeds, no satisfactory general regulation could be made. All “dry” seeds 
contain some water, often as much as 5 or ro per cent., and in the’ case 
of seeds surrounded by a dried succulent fruit, the percentage may normally 
be still higher, and this without detriment to ‘the seeds. In addition, some 
seeds (Willows, &c.) are killed by severe drying. If the allowed percent: 
age of water was placed fairly high,'say, 15 or 20 per cent., a regulation 
to that effect would do no harm, but neither would it do much good, for no 
seedsman would risk damaging his seed by watering to increase its weight. ° 
