THE SEED 



71 



and have tests made. Fertilizer inspection is so thor- 

 oughly established in the United States that many of 

 the State agricultural experiment stations receive a 

 considerable part of their income for their chemical 

 department — at least, from the analysis of fertilizers. 

 While a similar system of inspection may not be prac- 

 tical with reference to the sale of seeds, it is more im- 

 portant to know the quality of the seeds to be sown 

 than the analysis of the fertilizer to be used. 



The subject of seed testing has received little at- 

 tention in the United States as compared with that 

 given it in Europe. Hicks * says, under the heading, 

 ' ' Seed Control in Europe ' ' : 



' ' European seed control may be said to have origi- 

 nated in 1869, when Dr. Nobbe, director of the experi- 

 ment station at Tharand, Saxony, began to devote his 

 attention to the impurities and low germinating power 

 of many commercial seeds for which the German 

 farmer was paying fancy prices. The publication of 

 the results obtained by him excited much comment 

 and laid the foundation for the present extensive sys- 

 tem of European seed control. At the present time 

 there are seed-control stations in all of the principal 

 countries of Europe, more than forty existing in Ger- 

 many alone. In some cases these are distinct institu- 

 tions, but frequently this work is done in connection 

 with agricultural experiment stations, the majority of 

 which devote more or less attention to the subject. 

 Some countries and States have general laws concern- 

 ing fraud which may be used to cover seed adultera- 



* Hicks, G. H. 11 Pure Seed Investigation." Year-book, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, 1894. 



