ItEPOllT TO THE COUNCIL ON ADULTERATION OE SEEES. 33 



12. In seeking for a remedy for the evil, your Committee recog- 

 nized the existence of two distinct elements in it, each requiring 

 different treatment : — 1, the actual adulteration of seeds ; and, 2, 

 the mere keeping them too long and selling them when too old. 



13. Actual adulteration is entitled to no mercy. It is a delibe- 

 rate and intentional fraud, in the suppression of which the trade is 

 as much interested as the general public, and ought to be suppressed 

 by the strong hand of the law in the same way as any other fraud. 



14. It is different with the selling of old seed. The seeds 

 produced in different years, like different vintages, vary in their 

 quality and in their power of retaining their vitality. It thus 

 sometimes happens that two-years-old seed is better than one- 

 year-old. There is thus a special difficulty in dealing with it; 

 but it is clear that the public are entitled to get what they pay 

 for; and if it is necessary, to secure this, that the dealer should test 

 the quality of his seeds each year, it is his duty to do so. 



15. It seems a right and proper thing that Government should 

 bestow some pains in protecting the very large numbers of igno- 

 rant and uneducated people who have to purchase seeds. In 

 Prussia, Sachverstandigen, or, as we should call them, experts, are 

 appointed by Government, whose duty it is, for a certain fee, to 

 test the quality of the seeds of such merchants as apply to them, 

 and to publish the results ; and in some districts (Saxony and Wiir- 

 temberg, for example) there are officials, paid by the Government 

 or district, whose business it is to look after the culture of fruit- 

 trees and to give gratuitous advice to all who apply to them for it. 



16. But, independently of the action of Government, your 

 Committee are disposed to think that the Council of the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society might itself do much to encourage the sale 

 of good seeds, if not to prevent the sale of bad. How it can most 

 effectually exert its influence for this purpose, is a question on 

 which the Council might probably obtain useful suggestions from 

 the respectable members of the seed- trade ; and your Committee re- 

 commend that a number of them be invited to meet the Council and 

 give their views as to the best steps to be taken to remedy the evil. 



VIII. Second Interim Report by the Subcommittee on the Adulte- 

 ration of Seeds. (" Vitality ' ' — continued.) 

 Since presenting their last Eeport your Committee have ob- 

 tained additional information, which they think will be sufficient 

 to enable the Council to take some action in the matter. 



The circulation and publication of their former Eeport brought 



