30 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
THE IMPORTATION OF LOW-GRADE SEED SHOULD BE STOPPED. 
Every pound of worthless seed imported is finally sold to the 
farmer. Some of it goes into the trade to fill the demand for cheap 
seed. More of it is used to mix with better seed in the grading-down 
process. By mixing 100 pounds of seed worth $15 with 100 pounds 
of imported screenings which cost $7.50, a medium grade will result, 
costing $11.25 per hundred pounds, which is not sold at $11.25 but 
at $13 or $14 per hundred pounds. Whenever a dealer mixes two 
qualities of seed together to make a medium or low grade the price 
is not reduced in proportion to the quality. In this way the jobber or 
dealer who mixes seeds invariably gets a profit on the screenings 
which are used. 
Unfortunately many farmers in the United States furnish a ready 
market for the refuse from our own cleaning mills, and moreover, on 
account of their demand for cheap seed, we are importing the waste 
from other countries. Seedsmen should not, perhaps, be altogether 
blamed for meeting this demand for cheap seed, and they must be 
expected to sell it as long as there is a cal] for it. At the same time, 
the farmer not being as good a judge as the seedsman often takes 
what is offered at the lowest price and unwittingly pays more for 
the seed that will grow than if he had bought the best. What is of 
more importance to the farmer, however, is not that he is paying 
more for his seed than he should, but that in buying low-grade | 
seed he gets either a poor stand from sowing dead seed, or small, weak 
plants from sowing seed of low vigor, 6r the crop is smothered by 
weeds which will continue to foul the land for many years. 
Argentina has a law prohibiting the importation of alfalfa and 
clover seed containing the seed of dodder. Canada prohibits the 
sale within her borders of seed containing weed seeds, but provides 
for its export. Europe is effectually protected from the use of 
poor seeds through its seed-control stations, but its screenings are 
exported. It seems time that the United States had some restriction 
on the importation of seeds of such poor quality that they can not 
be sold in other countries. 
111—1iII 
