300 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 175. 



SEED INSPECTION. 



Seeds should be inspected not only to determine their purity, 

 but their vitality aswell. This is a serious matter to the vegetable 

 grower, with whom the difference between strains of the same 

 variety is often very great. With the celery farmer a supply of bad 

 seed causes large losses. In any statute concerning weed-seed 

 impurities, as in Sec. 7001 R. S. Ohio, there should be some authority 

 designated to examine seed in order to make the law operative. If 

 there has been a conviction under that statute in the many years 

 since it was enacted, it has never been known to me. The U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture is carrying on "pure seed investiga- 

 tions" through its seed division, and it would appear that the time 

 approaches when the State will be required to provide for seed 

 control similar to that maintained in some foreign countries. Mean- 

 while the small amount of examination made by the Botanical De- 

 partment of the Experiment Station represents the demand for it. 

 In this work there is opportunity to do a good deal more, should it be 

 required. 



In the matter of the conditions affecting the vitality of stored 

 seeds, the recent work of Duvel 1 is of great value to all. He has 

 shown that moistm'e is the chief factor in determining the longevity 

 of seeds as commercially handled; seeds must be kept dry to re- 

 main viable. 



WEED LEGISLATION. 



Weed destruction or subjugation requires individual and col- 

 lective or communal effort. This arises from the manner of seed 

 dispersion. If one farm produces weeds and seeds in abundance, 

 adjacent areas will be covered by them. Wares offered for sale may 

 contain noxious seeds. The necessity for reasonable weed legisla- 

 tion is well established, but unfortunately there is room for much 

 improvement in Ohio weed statutes. 



There are now in force an act to prevent the vending of seeds 

 containing seeds of certain weedy plants — Sec. 7001; a law providing 

 for the destruction of weeds, briers and so forth, along partition 

 fences — Sec. 4255 1-5 R. S., and two recent acts requiring the de- 

 struction of Canada and Russian thistles, wild lettuce and wild 

 mustard. There appears to be no provision made for the destruc- 

 tion of weeds upon the property of the State, as along canals and 

 about reservoirs. Under these circumstances much gx>od may be 

 accomplished by the enactment of an adequate and at the same time 

 readily adjustable state weed law. 



iThe Vitality and Germination of Seeds by J . W. T. Duvel. Bulletin Bureau oi Plant Industry. 

 U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 58: pp. 96, (1904). 



