768 



Impurities in Seed. 



[Jan., 



the rods are harvested. Previous to peeling they are soaked 

 in boiling water. From the boiler they are taken to the 

 stripping room where the bark is removed by women. The 

 rods are then placed in a heated shed to dry, after which 

 they are graded into sizes ready for use. Although attempts 

 have been made to find a use for the bark they have so far 

 failed, and it is simply a waste product. 



A few years ago baskets of all descriptions were made 

 both for English and foreign markets, but now only those 

 kinds are made for which there is a local demand, and the 

 majority of the rods suitable for fine work are sold ready for 

 use. A brisk trade is carried on in potato hampers, and 

 there is a good demand for pigeon and fowl baskets. 



The majority of the varieties of basket-making willows 

 grown in the country have been tried at Mawdesley, but most 

 of them have been discarded as unsuitable for the district, 

 and only a few selected forms of two or three species are 

 grown, which are recognised by local names. An account of 

 these varieties classed under their respective species is given 

 in the Kew Bulletin mentioned above. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have received a 

 note from Mr. Thomas Milburn, Ph.D., of the Midland 



Agricultural and Dairy College, on the 

 Impurities in Seed. subject of impurities in seed caused by 



travelling threshing machines, &c. 

 There is one point in connection with the proper treatment 

 of grain during threshing which has hardly received the 

 attention it deserves, and this is the importance of keeping 

 samples true to kind. It is a common experience to find in 

 the same field of grain different varieties or different genera 

 growing together, and the loss caused by such mixing, though 

 difficult to estimate, is beyond dispute. To take the case of 

 barley, where evenness of ripening is a desideratum, if an 

 early ripening variety contains even one per cent, of a late 

 ripening variety, the crop is bound to be uneven, and conse- 

 quently to be reduced in value. Some of this variation may 

 be due to careless handling, or to mixing caused by rats, but 

 one of the chief causes is the travelling threshing machine. 



