The Purchase of Grass Seeds. 199 



Thb Purchase of Gbass Seeds. — It is most important that 

 the farmer should buy his seeds separately and mix them at 

 home, because a careful observer may then easily see if each 

 kind of seed is either mixed with other grass seeds or -with weed 

 seeds, whereas if they are mixed by the seedsman, the purchaser 

 cannot readily detect in the mixture either a greater proportion 

 of the lower-priced seeds or weed seeds. It is important that 

 the farmer should each year ascertain the current prices of seeds, 

 so as to make up his mixture in the most economical way. 

 Even a seed usually expensive may become in a particular 

 season comparatively cheap. This, for instance, was the case 

 one year with Tall Fescue, and I therefore increased my order 

 by several poimds per acre for it, and used less of another of the 

 seeds of the mixture. 



I have shown that the farmer should never purchase mixed 

 seeds. It will be found that if he buys them mixed, he can 

 always get them at a lower price than if they are bought 

 separately and mixed at home, because in the former case a 

 large supply of the cheaper kinds of seeds can be supplied in the 

 mixture without much fear of detection, and a considerable pro- 

 portion of weed seeds as well. It is a not uncommon practice 

 of farmers to bid one seedsman against another, tiU a price 

 is reached so low that no good seeds could be supplied for the 

 money except at a loss to the vendor. The farmer then goes 

 home happy and thinks he has done well, while in reality he has 

 been swallowing the cow and choking on the taU — the cow 

 meaning his total expenditure on the land for rent, taxes, 

 working, and other expenses, while he hesitates to swallow that 

 tail which is necessary to complete his transaction for the year, 

 and for as many years afterwards as he wishes his land to be in 

 grass. In other words, if he takes paias to see that he gets the 

 best grass seeds, and mixes them at home, he may be certaia of 

 getting the best results from his labour and expenditure, while 

 by putting down inferior seeds he is sure to be a comparative 

 loser. 



Comparison between the Turf from Old Pasture and 

 THAT FROM Deep-rooting Plants. — If you cut up and examine 

 a turf from an old pasture it is very shallow as compared with a 



