Miscellaneous 



360 



[April 1908. 



seed, He has known only one case in 

 which the seed failed to give the " blaze" 

 current, and subsequently germinated. 

 He has had no case of a seed giving a 

 blaze current without subsequent ger- 

 mination. Further, by his method an 

 idea of the degree of vitality of the seed 

 is obtainable. I am hoping to be able, 

 with Dr. Waller's help, to make practical 

 use of his method in seed-testing. 



Fungi on Seeds. 



One needs very little experience in 

 seed-testing to realise to what an extent 

 seeds harbour fungi. Many of these 

 fungi are saprophytic, and their abund- 

 ance is one sign that the seed is old 

 and dead. Others are, however, para- 

 sitic. They exist as hibernating myce- 

 lium in the substance of the seeds and 

 its coats, or in the form of spores at- 

 tached or clinging to the seed coats or 

 concealed within them, and sprout under 

 the conditions favourable to the germin- 

 ation of the healthy seeds. Several 

 years ago 1 made an examination of 

 mangel balls showing the pycnidia of 

 Phoma betce, a fungus which does an 

 immense amount of harm in Ireland. 

 As Appel has recently suggested in such 

 cases as Phoma betce and Helminthos 

 porium gramineum seed-testing misjht 

 aid considerably in preventing unsuit- 

 able seed from being sown. In this con- 

 nection it may be mentioned that Rolfs 

 found the centrifugal apparatus helpful 

 in detecting the spores of Fusarium lini 

 on flax seeds. 



Cost of Seed-Testing. 



Apparatus. — The Station should have 

 several incubators, a greenhouse if pos- 

 sible, a plot of ground, desectiug and 

 compound microscopes, a reliable set of 

 named seeds, certain books, at least two 

 rooms— one for the staff, and one for the 

 incubators. £100 would suffice to equip 

 the Station with the necessary appa- 

 ratus. 



Staff.— The Director should be a 

 trained botanist, and should have at 

 least one scientific assistant who would 

 be reponsible to the Director for the accu- 

 racy of all the work. 



The counting of seeds, washing of 

 dishes, etc., take up a great deal of time, 

 and for these purposes two or three 

 smart boys or girls are necessary. In 

 this station, with 1,500 samples a year 

 to be tested, the Directorship is part of 

 my duty as Professor of Botany iu the 

 Royal College of Science. One witness 

 before the Seed Committee thought a 

 central Station would need a Director 



receiving £1,000 a year, with the neces- 

 sary staff and equipment. 



Coast of Test,— The cost of a test 

 varies very much according to the cha- 

 racter of the seed and the extent of the 

 test, being as a rule from 3s. upwards. 



In this Station the seedsman pays 

 2s. per sample for reports on purity 

 and germination ; the farmer, how- 

 ever, only pays 3d. Our work is con- 

 fined to the Irish seed trade, and all 

 fees go to H.M's Treasury. 



It appears that no fewer thau 850 sam- 

 ples are sent from the United Kingdom 

 abroad each year to be tested, naturally 

 at considerable expense and unavoid- 

 able delay. A well-conducted Station 

 for Great Britain under Govenment 

 control would be highly beneficial to 

 British Agriculture. There is evidence 

 from time to time that the existence 

 of this Station has vastly improved the 

 quality, e.g., of the flax seed sown in 

 Ireland. A seedsman selling good seed 

 has nothing to lose, but much to gain, 

 by having his seeds inspected and cer- 

 tificated. 



In the rubbish too often palmed oft 

 on the ignorant farmer, the Station 

 proves when called in (and most of 

 our testing is done for the farmers in 

 Ireland ) a necessary detective. 



The Seed Committee makes what 

 seems to me a fundamental error when 

 it says that "the price at which these 

 seeds ( certian uncleand seeds of inferior 

 quality sold in Ireland ) are sold not 

 unfrequently corresponds fairly accur- 

 ately to their value." The seed may be 

 regarded as the farmer's raw material 

 on which he expends his money, time, 

 brain, land, men, and farm appliances. 

 If the seed is impure and of low germin- 

 ation, he will have to spend not less, 

 but rather more, of some of these in 

 working up his raw material, and 

 the resulting harvest will bear no com- 

 parison with that derivable from 

 good seed. The disparity between the 

 two results will bear no comparison 

 with the difference in the original out- 

 lay in money on the two kinds of seeds. 

 If the farmer knows by test that he is 

 buying seed germinating only 75 per 

 cent, instead of 95 per cent, he can in- 

 crease the quantity sown, and so save 

 loss in one direction. The Station would 

 give him this information. 



In the same way the cost to the 

 State of a central Seed Station is trifl- 

 ing compared with the benefit to 

 British agriculture its creation would 

 mean,— Science Progress No, 3, Vol. I.. 

 January 1907, pp. 483/95. 



