1922.] First Year's Working of the Seeds Act, 1920. 731 



Act. Practically the whole of the 5,000 not previously visited 

 were firms where seeds are sold mainly in sealed packets only 

 during a very short period in the spring, entirely as a side-line 

 to the main business of the establishment. They included 

 chemists, genera! stores, hardware merchants, provision mer- 

 chants, confectioners, rural post-offices, ironmongers, coal 

 merchants, stationers, fishmongers, fruiterers, barbers, boot 

 dealers, dentists, newsagents, cattle dealers, butter merchants, 

 cycle dealers, tea merchants, drapers and butchers. 



It has been suggested that the Ministry's inspectors neglect 

 to visit the small trader of the kind above referred to, but the 

 figures given should disprove such a contention. It must be 

 remembered also that it is much more difficult for the inspectors 

 to discover shops which combine a small seed trade, limited 

 to a few weeks in the year, with another business, than it is to 

 find those establishments where the sale of seeds and kindred 

 material is the principal business. 



Control Samples. — The principal object in visiting premises 

 on which seed is sold is to ascertain whether the provisions of 

 the Seeds Act are being properly carried out. With this end in 

 view it is necessary to draw a certain number of control samples 

 for the purpose of having check tests carried out at the Official 

 Seed Testing Station. During the season 1921-22 the number 

 of control samples so taken amounted to 950, including 282 

 samples of clover, 177 of grasses, 9 of field seeds, 20 of cereals, 

 95 of roots, and 356 of vegetables. In addition, 280 control 

 samples of sealed packets were taken and also 500 samples of 

 seeds placed in reserve at the licensed private seed testing 

 stations. 



The check tests carried out at the Official Seed Testing 

 Station showed that in 97 out of the 950 samples, the declara- 

 tion as to germination, purity, etc., made by the seller was in- 

 accurate to a marked degree in one or other of the particulars. 

 These discrepancies were mainly in respect of clover, grasses 

 and garden seeds; 12 per cent, of the total number of clover 

 samples; 15 per cent, of the grass samples, and 8 per cent, of 

 the garden samples proving to be incorrectly described. 



The principal source of error in the statements made by 

 vendors was in respect of the percentage of germination. In 

 13 cases the declared germination differed from the results of 

 the official check test by between 10 and 15 per cent, and in 25 

 cases the discrepancies were over 20 per cent. Ten cases showed 

 a discrepancy of between 3 and 5 per cent, in the percentage 



