THE GRASSES— PERENNIAL RYEGRASS. 79 



cess would astonish most people. The labours of the 

 merchants to produce pure seed are, however, in many 

 cases rendered useless by the foolish and short-sighted 

 practice of many farmers, who throw into this pure seed 

 a mixture of some cheap rubbish, perhaps hayloft sweep- 

 ings or rough uncleaned seed got from a neighbour, and 

 thus restore a considerable proportion of the bad grasses 

 and weed seeds which the grass-seed cleaners have been 

 at such pains to remove. 



The presence of Annual Eyegrass seed amongst 

 Perennial must likewise be looked upon as an impurity. 

 As has been pointed out by Mr. Sutton, the selling of 

 the Annual for the Perennial variety is " no better than 

 a fraud." The seed of Annual Ryegrass is large, flat, 

 and can be easily distinguished from the seed of Peren- 

 nial or Italian varieties. It is almost as broad as the 

 Goose grass, but is more chaffy, and has no awn. It is 

 impossible to remove the seeds of £rom,us secalinus 

 from Perennial, as they are rolled up tight, and will 

 slip through any mesh that will let Eyegrass through. 

 A sharp scrutiny is required to detect the presence of 

 this impurity, but it may be recognised by its roUed-up 

 appearance, and by the short awn that is attached. 



Weight per Bushel. — On this point Dr. Stebler gives 

 a table, showing results of an examination of four 

 qualities of Eyegrass seed, and demonstrates that, while 

 No. 4 quality was only one-third the price of No. i,yet 

 by making a calculation, founded on the purity and 

 germinatii^ power of each, the No. 4, or worst quality, 

 was actually eight times dearer than the No. i, or best. 

 Something similar could be demonstrated of the seeds 

 of almost aU species of plants used in agriculture. 



