Purchasers can noiv make sure of buying Good Seed. 137 



from his price-list, which, in his opinion, offers an easy and safe 

 method of obtaining good seeds : — 



" To enable purchasers to have their seeds analysed and tested 

 before the time of sowing, any seeds required will be delivered carriage 

 free to the purchaser, so that samples for analysis may he taken from 

 the bjilkt while they are in the possession of the buyer. This method is 

 more satisfactory than that of testing a, sample received from the 

 seed merchant before purchasing, as it excludes all doubt about the 

 identity of the seed analysed. In the event of any kind of seed not 

 fulfilUng, in every particular, the guarantee of purity, genuineness, 

 or per centage or germination stated in this catalogue, such seed 

 may be refused, and returned at the expense of the seller, who will 

 also in such a case pay the consulting botanist's fee. " 



It is hardly necessary to say that, with such a system at the 

 command of the purchaser, it is now his own fault if he does not put 

 down good seed. 



Mr. Hunter deprecates the use of such a large quantity of clover 

 seed as is commonly sown when laying down land to permanent 

 pasture. He says that it has been customary to sow about 9 lb. of 

 clover, and a farmer in Scotland who has laid down much land to 

 grass tells me that 12 lb. to 14 lb. are often sown. Mr. Hunter 

 advises 5 lb. of the best clover seeds, and says that equally good 

 results will be obtained as from sowing a larger quantity. I generally 

 use 5 lb., and find this ample ; and, on showing a field of temporary 

 grass on which that quantity had been sown to a number of farmers, 

 they could hardly believe that so little seed had been used. 



As regards Sinclair's estimate of the number of seeds in a lb. , Mr. 

 Hunter observes that this cannot now be accepted, as in former days 

 there would be a great difiBculty in obtaining such samples as can 

 now be produced. "The number of seeds," writes Mr. Hunter, "in 

 a lb. depends entirely on the quality of the sample you choose. A 

 sample of light undressed grass seed will give twice or three times 

 the number of seeds to the lb. that a perfectly-dressed sample of 

 heavy ripe quality will do. To insure accuracy in this matter, I had 

 all the seeds in my table carefully counted, using only samples of 

 heaviest weight and purest quality, and these figures are now 

 generally adopted." 



