QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF SEED 



27 



The following Tests were made by Prof, Wm. P. Hbadden, 

 in Colorado. 



«4 V 



o-a 



DESCRIPTION. 



Years 

 old. 



Par- 

 centage 

 germi- 

 nated. 



Prime seed 



Prime seed 



Prime seed 



Prime seed 



Screenings, first quality . 

 Screenings, first quality . 

 Screenings, first quality . 

 Screenings, second quality 

 Screenings, third quality . 



96 



66 

 55 

 79 



The foregoing tables illustrate the germinability of 

 seed of different ages and qualities. The variations 

 shown by Clothier are largely due to quality of seed 

 at the time of thrashing and not to age. There need 

 be no hesitation in sowing seed that ohows a germina- 

 bility of only forty per cent. , but such seed should be 

 purchased at a price correspondingly low, and the 

 ordinary quantity per acre doubled. Buyers should 

 insist upon a guarantee of a certain percentage of ger- 

 minability, and beware of seed that has a reddish- 

 brown or black color. This has probably been injured 

 in the stack by heating. Alfalfa that has molded, 

 heated, or "stack -burned," should never be thrashed 

 for seed. 



F. Barteldes & Co. , seedsmen, of I^awrence, Kansas, 

 give the following rules to be observed in seledling 

 and determining the quality and purity of the seed, 

 aside from adlual tests of vitality by germination: 



' ' In the first place, the best new seed is uniformly 

 of bright golden-yellow color. From various causes, 

 however, which do not affedt its vitality, new seed is 

 more or less discolored. Seed kept after the first year 

 grows darker in color, and its vitality decreases, 



