Adulteration of Seeds 



145 



average percentage of foreign matters in grass seeds was 41, in 

 the aggregate of many tests. Of the 59 per cent which was true 

 to name only 18.3 per cent possessed germinative vitality. The 

 adulteration of seeds in many European countries has been carried 

 to such an extent in times past as almost to challenge belief. 

 Seeds of various weeds, which closely resemble the seeds offered 

 for sale, were often freely introduced, and the whole, or the adul- 

 teration, was then cooked to destroy the life of the seeds, that the 

 growth of the plants might not expose the seller. Seeds of cab- 

 bage or cauliflower may be adulterated with mustard seed, and 

 the whole boiled or baked. Old and worthless seeds are often 

 scoured, rubbed, oiled or dyed to make them appear bright and 

 healthy. It has been estimated that 20,000 bushels of old and 

 inferior turnip seeds have been used in London in one year for 

 purposes of adulteration. In parts of Europe it is said that a 

 medick (Medicago lupuUna) is grown in quantities for the adultera- 

 tion of clover seed. Some years since there existed in Hamburg 

 a factory which made counterfeit clover seed from quartz, using 

 this material to the amount of 25 per cent or more of the 

 total bulk of the seed sold. Nobbe found enough weed seeds 

 in a certain sample of timothy seed to supply, if sown at the ordi- 

 nary rate, twenty- four weeds to every square foot of land. Such 

 wholesale and intentional adulteration has not been observed in 

 this country. Grass seeds, however, have been found to be of very 

 low quality in many cases, particularly those kinds not exten- 

 sively used. Much of this is undoubtedly imported. Beal writes:* 

 ^^One of the best firms in New York sent me some seeds of grass 

 which were rotten or had been cooked. At another time the firm 

 was about to buy what was called Bermuda grass. The material 

 consisted of the chaff or hulls of Bermuda grass, every one of 

 which proved to be empty or only in flower. Not one good seed 

 was found. Results almost as remarkable were obtained in exam- 

 ining seeds of meadow foxtail, which were purchased of a reliable 

 firm. The same, in one case, was true of Kentucky blue-grass, 

 creeping bent-grass, sheep's fescue, wood meadow-grass, rough- 

 stalked meadow-grass and reed canary -grass." 



*Rep. Mich. Bd. Agr. 1880, 51. 



