10 THE SEEDS OF THE BLUEGRASSES. 
GRADES AND QUALITY OF COMMERCIAL SEEDS. 
The seeds of all species except Kentucky bluegrass are known to the 
American trade in only one grade. This is the so-catled ‘‘faney” 
grade, which is based on relative cleanness and on the bright appear- 
ance of the seed. ‘The quality of different samples passing under this 
grade name is not necessarily uniform, but among the more careful 
dealers a purity standard of from 80 to 90 per cent is usually maintained. 
The seeds of Kentucky bluegrass and of Canada bluegrass raised in 
this country are usually much cleaner and freer from foreign seeds’ 
than the EKuropean-grown seeds of rough-stalked meadow grass, wood 
meadow grass, and fowl meadow grass. 
Kentucky bluegrass seed is-~commonly offered in two grades— 
‘‘fancy,” and ‘*extra-clean” or ‘‘extra-cleaned.” The latter names are 
a survival of the time when the seed was hand cleaned and the ‘‘ extra- 
clean” was the best seed on the market. With the advent of improved 
machinery the ‘*‘ fancy” grade was established and it is now the only 
gerade generally accepted by the intelligent purchaser. The ‘‘extra- 
clean” still on the market belies its name, since it consists of the chaff 
or cleanings from the fancy seed, and consequently contains only light 
seed. Samples of ‘‘extra-cleaned” as offered usually contain less than 
10 per cent of seed. 
In some cases the growers find a sale for the rough or uncleaned 
seed after it has been passed through a feed cutter. In this condition 
it has very much the appearance of fine-cut straw with a large per- 
centage of chaff, and can be scattered over pastures and other areas, 
seeding them as effectually as could be done by the use of fancy 
recleaned seed. If well cured, the germinating quality of such seed 
is excellent, and the mass contains from 60 to 70 per cent of pure seed. 
Except for foreign trade the percentage of germination has little to do 
with the price and grade of bluegrass seed. 
Aside from adulterated samples the purity of ‘‘ fancy” seed of all 
species of bluegrass is usually good. Of the 2,887 samples of Ken- 
tucky bluegrass tested by the Zurich Seed Control Station from 1876 
to 1903 the average purity was 86.3 percent. Of the 69 samples 
tested in the Seed Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture 
during the past year the average purity was 75.02 per cent. 
ADULTERATION. 
The seed of Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa) is the only kind 
used as an adulterant of Kentucky bluegrass in this country. During 
the year 1904 649,451 pounds of Canada bluegrass seed were imported 
from Canada, practically none of which is being sold under its true 
name. Among the samples of seed sold for Kentucky bluegrass and 
sent to the Seed Laboratory for examination a large number have 
