14 



White and Alsike Clover Seed. [april, 



the degree of maturity when harvested. It is well known that 

 differences may exist in the maturation of clover seeds from the 

 same plant, or even from the same flower-head, fertilization 

 taking place at different times. When harvest time arrives, even 

 a small patch of clover may exhibit many instances of inter- 

 ference with the development of the embryo, and the sample 

 will consequently contain a considerable proportion of thin, 

 immature, and comparatively worthless seed. If this is so in a 

 small lot, produced with care and from one source, it is much 

 more likely to be the case with many large consignments of 

 seed from America and the Continent of Europe. The seeds 

 are grown perhaps in districts widely apart and under differing 

 conditions ; the different lots are bulked together at the port of 

 shipment, and carried thence to the English market. When the 

 consignments come into the hands of reliable seed merchants 

 the seeds are subjected to a process of cleaning by the aid of a 

 somewhat expensive system of fanning, sifting, and grading, to 

 remove obnoxious weed seeds, thin and immature grains, and 

 mechanical impurities, and when this is done a very superficial 

 examination discloses the quality of the sample. Though the 

 cleaning process is in the best interests of the farmer, it neces- 

 sarily entails cost and raises the price, but a thoroughly well- 

 cleaned sample is likely to be the cheapest in the end. 



Alsike as well as white clover is grown for seed purposes in 

 England, Germany, and Austria, but very frequently Continental- 

 grown seed, unless of the highest quality, contains a great 

 variety of weed seeds, and especially the much-dreaded dodder. 



Though of recent years there has been an apparent decline in 

 the purity of American-grown seed, it still, nevertheless, holds 

 good that some of the purest and best samples on the English 

 market are grown on the American Continent — Canada and the 

 North- Western States producing a considerable quantity of the 

 highest grade seed. 



The seeds of Alsike, like white clover, are heart-shaped, and 

 in good samples should be plump and uniform. The colour is 

 very variable in different samples, and even in the same sample 

 there may be dark green, yellowish-green, and pale green seeds ; 

 alternate shades of light and dark green in many cases give the 

 seeds a somewhat marbled appearance, which is characteristic of 



