WEIGHT PER BUSHEL. EL 
contained from 30 to 50 per cent of Canada bluegrass seed and several 
have been entirely composed of the Canada seed. 
It is significant in this connection that the price of Canada bluegrass 
seed varies with that of Kentucky bluegrass seed, being usually about 
one-half that of the latter. This adulteration is not merely a simple 
fraud by which the farmer pays for what he does not get, but the 
difference in the resulting pasture or hay crop is very important. 
Canada bluegrass, while having many good qualities in common with 
other species of Poa, is by no means a pasture grass, for which purpose 
Kentucky bluegrass is unexcelled. 
The seed of wood meadow grass (Poa nemoralis) is sometimes adul- 
terated with other species of Poa, and samples have been offered under 
this name that contain no wood meadow grass seed. One sample tested 
in the Seed Laboratory contained 59.4 per cent of Poa pratensis and 
23 per cent of Poa compressa, the remainder being chaff and dirt. 
Samples of fowl meadow grass (Poa triflora) have been examined 
which consisted largely of various common grass and clover seeds 
combined with an abundance of weed seeds. These samples contained 
small quantities of Kentucky and Canada bluegrass seeds, much chaff 
and dirt, and some of them no seeds of fowl meadow grass. 
The seed of Kentucky bluegrass is used to adulterate that of the 
higher priced Poa trivialis, pure seed of the latter species usually 
being hard to obtain. Some of the German authorities say that it is 
necessary for every farmer to save his own seed of this grass in order 
to be sure that it is pure. Hunter“ says: 
Previously to 1883 good and genuine seed of this species (Poa trivialis) could not 
be obtained in this country [England]. Seed of the Poa pratensis was commonly 
supplied for it. It is now less difficult to procure genuine seed, but large quantities 
of seed of Poa pratensis (which usually costs about one-third the price) are prepared 
to resemble and are sold for Poa trivialis, and it is only by careful microscopic exam- 
ination that the nature of the seed can be determined 
WEIGHT PER BUSHEL. 
The standard weight of a bushel of bluegrass seed of any grade is 14 
pounds. The actual weight, however, varies from 6 to 8 pounds in the 
case of *‘extra cleaned” to 27 pounds or more for especially good sam- 
ples of fancy recleaned seed. In the bluegrass region of Kentucky it is 
the usual practice to sell the seed fresh from the strippers or cured in 
the chaff by the bushel of 14 pounds, but it is always weighed, not 
measured. The cleaned seed is always sold by the pound. As the 
weight per bushel of bluegrass seed depends directly on its purity, 
it is customary in quoting the price of ‘‘fancy” seed to accompany it 
with a statement as to the weight per bushel. 
$$ — 
«Treatise on Permanent Pasture Grasses, James Hunter. Chester, England, 1901. 
