THE SEED 71 



and have tests made. Fertilizer inspection is so thor- 

 oughly established in the United States that many of 

 the State agricultural experiment stations receive a 

 considerable part of their income for their chemical 

 department — at least, from the analysis of fertilizers. 

 While a similar system of inspection may not be prac- 

 tical with reference to the sale of seeds, it is more im- 

 portant to know the quality of the seeds to be sown 

 than the analysis of the fertilizer to be used. 



The subjedt of seed testing has received little at- 

 tention in the United States as compared with that 

 given it in Europe. Hicks* says, under the heading, 

 " Seed Control in Europe ": 



' ' European seed control may be said to have origi- 

 nated in 1869, when Dr. Nobbe, director of the experi- 

 ment station at Tharand, Saxony, began to devote his 

 attention to the impurities and low germinating power 

 of many commercial seeds for which . the German 

 farmer was pa5dng fancy prices. The publication of 

 the results obtained by him excited much comment 

 and laid the foundation for the present extensive sys- 

 tem of European seed control. At the present time 

 there are seed-control stations in all of the principal 

 countries of Europe, more than forty existing in Ger- 

 many alone. In some cases these are distindt institu- 

 tions, but frequently this work is done in connedlion 

 with agricultural experiment stations, the majority of 

 which devote more or less attention to the subje<3;. 

 Some countries and States have general laws concern- 

 ing fraud which may be used to cover seed adultera- 



• Hicks, G.H. " Pure Seed Investigation." Year-book, United States 

 Department of .Agriculture, 1894. 



