PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 



141 



Seed machinery. 



Seed-sowing is one epoch in crop practice. Whatever modifies the crop management of a farm also 

 modifies the methods or purposes of seeding. In Chapter V it was shown that crop management has 

 been profoundly influenced by the invention of machinery. Some of this invention, also, has been modi- 

 fied and directed by changes in crop management. The same remarks may be made with special force 

 in reference to the seed-sowing phase of the work. In seeding and harvesting machinery we have 

 made great progress. Figs. 191-208, and also Figs. 117-119 and 122, 123, illustrate some of the 

 progress in seeding machinery, and at the same time exhibit most of the mechanical principles that 

 have been applied for putting seeds into the ground. The number of different patterns and styles 

 of machines is very great. Every largely grown crop has its own range of planters or seeders. 



PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 



By E. Brown and F. H. Hillman 



The quality of agricultural seeds, especially of 

 forage crops, has been given much more attention 

 in Europe than in America. European countries 

 have seed control in various forms, with over one 

 hundred seed-control stations, some of them with 

 an international reputation. We have developed a 

 system by means of which commercial fertilizers 

 are sold under guaranteed analyses, and a large 

 part of the work of some of our state agricultural 

 experiment stations is given to making these 

 chemical analyses ; but comparatively little atten- 

 tion has been given to the quality of seeds. No 

 seeds sold in this country are guaranteed as to 

 purity and germination, and but few experiment 

 stations have facilities for seed - testing. The 

 United States Department of Agriculture and some 

 of the agricultural experiment stations, however, 

 have done much to show the importance of good 

 seeds. Publications have been issued calling atten- 

 tion to the quality of various kinds of seeds on the 

 market, and samples have been tested for the infor- 

 mation of the senders. 



Large quantities of low-grade screenings, espe- 

 cially of clover and alfalfa, are imported annually 

 to be mixed with better seeds and sold as medium 

 and low grades. Besides dirt and dead seed, these 

 screenings contain large quantities of weed seeds. 

 Beal has shown (Bot. Gaz., August, 1905, "The 

 Vitality of Seeds") that the seeds of many com- 

 mon weeds grow after having been buried in the 

 ground for twenty-five years. Among these are 

 pigweed, black mustard, "shepherd's purse, pepper- 

 grass, evening primrose, smart- 

 weed, purslane, curled dock, pigeon- 

 grass, chickweed and mayweed. The 

 purchaser of low-grade seed is 

 fouling his land with weeds which 

 may appear for years afterward, 

 whenever the conditions are right 

 for their germination. Farmers 

 make the mistake of thinking that 

 there is not so much difference in quality as in 

 price, while as a matter of fact the good seed in 

 the low grades costs often many times as much 

 per pound as the good seed in the best grades. 



Testing fir purity. 



Everyone buying seeds should have some kind of 

 a lens with which to examine them. The form 



Fig. 209. Tripod 

 magnifier. 



shown , in Fig. 209, costing twenty-five to fifty 

 cents, is satisfactory. By spreading grass or clover 

 seed thinly on a sheet of white paper and looking 

 at it carefully with a lens, it is easy to detect the 

 presence of any considerable amount of weed seeds 

 or chaff. The seeds used as adulterants are much 

 more difficult to distinguish, and in all cases of sus- 

 pected adulteration samples of the seed should be 

 sent for examination to the state agricultural ex- 

 periment station or to the Seed Laboratory of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. All seed 

 should be practically free from weed seeds and 

 chaff, and contain no adulterants. Clover and 

 alfalfa should be bright and contain no brown 

 seeds or dodder seed. 



Testing for germination. 



All the quick-germinating seeds, such as clover, 

 timothy and grain, can be easily tested for ger- 

 mination by any one 

 with the simple tester 

 shown in Fig. 210. 

 Mix the seed thor- 

 oughly and count out 

 100 or 200 seeds just 

 as they come, mak- 

 ing ne selection ex- 

 cept to discard any 

 weed seeds. Put 

 them between a fold 

 of canton flannel or 

 some similar cloth 

 that has been washed 

 in boiling water, tak- 

 ing care not to let 

 the seeds touch one another. Lay the cloth on a 

 plate, moisten it well but do not saturate it, cover 

 with another plate and keep at a temperature of 

 about 70° F. Every day count and take out the 

 sprouted seeds. In four to ten days all of the 

 good seeds will have sprouted, and the percentage 

 of seed that will grow is known. 



Some of the grass seeds are more difficult to 

 test, requiring more exact conditions and an alter- 

 nating temperature. In all cases where seeds do 

 not germinate well in the simple tester shown, it is 

 best to send them away to be tested before dis- 

 carding them. 



Adtdteration. 



Several of our most important forage crop seeds 

 are frequently adulterated with seeds costing one- 



Fig. 210, A simple home-made 

 seed-tester. See pp. 280, 281, 



