31 



for the greatest part of Central der Saat mitberucksichtigen. Italie- 

 Eui'ope. nischer Eotklee z. B. wiirde wohl fast 



immer als „lst. Grade" beurteilt 



werden, obsehon er fur den grOBten 



Teil des mittleren Europas ganz 



ungeeignet ist". 



Mr. T. Anderso n, Director of the Official Seed Testing Station, Edinburgh, 



Scotland, wished to say a few words about grading applied to Scotland. 



Eye-grass, timothy and cereals only are grown for seed. The question 



of grade must there be considered from the point of view of the buyer. 



'When the general practice of stating the results of analyses was adopted 



seeds were, tested according to the Continental system. If the purity was 



too low it was not stated; germination only was declared. This misled 



the buyers. In Great Britain merchants used seed analysis chiefly for 



purposes of advertisement. They have now, however, adopted government 



seed-control. 



It is impossible to go beyond a figure stating pure germinating seed 

 which has any international significance. The seed control stations in 

 each country must define the further terms. Noxious seeds vary. Dodder 

 for inst. is not of importance in Scotland; elsewhere it is common. 



Proposal to be put before the Seed Testing Conference at Copenhagen 1921. 



The ultimate object of seed analysis is to ensure that the farmer receives a true 

 and easily understood description of the seed which he purchases. 



The present method of describing seeds in terms of the results of analyses of purity 

 and germination is not intelligible to the general farming public because the percentage 

 of germination does not refer to the whole sample but only to the portions left after the 

 impurities have been removed. 



Agricultural seeds are geiierally, sold by weight and the buyer is entitled to know 

 what percentage of the weight which he buys' has the capacity to produce the species of 

 plant which he desires. 



The figure which expresses this information is that. which indicates the percentage 

 of pure germinating seed viz. 



purity % X germination "/o 

 100 



The estimate obtained by means of this formula is the nearest approximation possible 

 to the percentage weight which a sample contains of germinating seed of the species 

 examined. 



Submission is therefore made to the Conference that it should be adopted as a general 

 practice of Seed Testing Stations to emphasize, in reports of analyses, the percentage of 

 pure germinating seed, to the suppression of the result of the experiment on the germination 

 of the pure seed. 



Alternatively it is submitted that the percentage of pure germinating seed should be 

 reported as tlie sole figure expressing the value of the seed as ascertained by analysis, 

 and should be accompanied by separate statements of the percentage of impurity, and of 

 the percentage of non-gerjninating seeds or portions of the seed or its accessory parts which 

 nornially occur in samples, the percentage weight of ungerminated seeds being estimated 

 in the. same way as the percentage of pure gerininating seed. 



