78 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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Separating bad seeds and impurities 
— HE Paris Seed Testing Station, which was 
R “8 first established in a small laboratory of 
the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers and 
moved a little later to equally cramped 
quarters in the Agronomic Institute, has 
for the last few months enjoyed an inde- 
pendence well earned by its useful work. 
Since its installation in the Rue Cervantes, moreover, the 
station has acquired a special importance, for it has been 
charged with the task of testing grain and seeds, and analyz- 
ing all specimens of concentrated fodder, including oil cake, 
bran cake and provender (a compound mixture of grain and 
chopped fodder), which has been seized by inspectors 
throughout French territory under the adulteration law of 
1905. 
Although the preponderating influence of the seed on the 
crop is universally admitted, very little has been done in the 
way of testing the purity and quality of seeds. In France 
there are thirty agricultural stations for testing fertilizers, 
but only two for testing seeds. In the new establishment 
the plant is studied from the economic rather than the scien- 
tific point of view. The seeds are subjected to a series of 
tests for the purpose of determining the species, variety, 
purity, germinating power, freedom from dodder in the 
case of clover, lu- 
cerne, flax and grass 
seeds, freedom from 
pumpernel in_ the 
case of. sainfoin, 
etc. 
In the first place, 
the species are de- 
termined by special- 
ists from the ap- 
pearance of the 
seeds to the naked 
eye and by the ex- 
amination of thin 
sections with the mi- 
croscope. The va- 
riety, as a rule, can 
be determined only 
byenat culture “test: 
The place of origin 
of the specimens is 
also noted, for few 
Forcing chambers for the germination of seeds 
February, 1909 
The New Seed Testing 
Station in Paris 
Bind 
By Jacques Boyer 
plants thrive in a climate very different from that of their 
native land. For example, when winter retch seed raised in 
the south of France is sown in the northern districts the 
young plants are almost always killed by the cold of winter, 
and American clovers, often sold as French clovers, being 
natives of hot and dry regions, are frequently killed by severe 
winters or by fungous diseases. Dodder seed is detected in 
clover and lucerne seed by a process of sifting. About ten 
ounces of the suspected seed are passed through hand sieves, 
or through a machine containing four superposed sieves 
mounted on a can, to which an oscillating motion is given by 
a hot-air or water moter. The meshes of the four sieves, 
beginning with the uppermost, measure respectively eight, 
six, five and four hundredths of an inch. The first sieve 
retains the coarse impurities, the second the clover or lucerne 
seed, the third and fourth the large and small dodder seed, 
while the fine impurities fall through to the bottom of the 
apparatus. 
The degree of impurity is given by the percentage of the 
original mass that collects on the third and fourth sieves and 
the bottom. If the seed contains no dodder and has not been 
sifted, it is examined by women who, with the aid of horn 
spatulas and magnifying glasses, separate the good seed from 
the bad seed and the impurities. The examiners also sepa- 
rate the impurities 
into distinct heaps 
of vegetable and 
animal parasites, 
weed seeds and 
other inert or injuri- 
ous substances. If 
it is found impos- 
sible to detect by 
this method the 
seeds which contain 
no embryos, or are 
of germination, the 
doubtful seeds are 
examined by trans- 
mitted light in a 
dark chamber con- 
structed for this 
purpose. The per- 
centage of good 
seed and of impuri- 
otherwise incapable . 
