Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1885. 329 
The great progress made in supplying good and pure seeds 
extends, I believe, to the larger houses throughout the country, 
but, from some experience, I fear that the smaller dealers in 
market towns distribute large quantities of worthless materials 
among farmers. This will be best illustrated by an example : — - 
A member of the Society in Kent bought from a merchant in 
a neighbouring market town six different grasses, in various 
proportions, to lay down some land. The purity and germina- 
tion were guaranteed. In the course of the season the bulk of 
the crop was found to be rye-grass, though no rye-grass seed 
had been included in the order. The samples were then sent 
to me. I found that what had been sold as meadow fescue 
was composed of 7(3 per cent, rye-grass, 16 per cent, meadow 
fescue, 4 per cent. Yorkshire fog, and 1 per cent, each of 
meadow grass, cocksfoot, golden-oat grass, and black grass. 
The tall fescue sample consisted of 67 per cent, of fescue, all, 
except a seed or two, being meadow fescue, 19 per cent, rye- 
grass, 7 per cent. Yorkshire fog, 6 per cent, cocksfoot, and 
1 per cent, black grass. The sample of cocksfoot contained 
7 per cent, of Yorkshire fog and 3 per cent, of rye-grass ; and 
the florin was mixed with timothy, and had numerous ergots. 
The condition of the field was what might have been expected 
from such seeds. Compensation was claimed and obtained 
from the merchant. In his justification he stated that he had 
sold the seeds just as he had bought them, and that no 
complaints had reached him from any other quarter. It is 
very difficult to influence merchants who are not acquainted 
with the goods which they sell, but who simply pass them 
ignorantly through their hands. No doubt the publication 
of a few cases like that which I have stated would have a 
beneficial effect, but so long as farmers seek only a low-priced 
article, and accept and sow worthless seeds without complaint, 
such will be supplied by the merchant, for they certainly bring 
a profit to him. 
The samples of mixtures for laying down permanent pastures 
still show that this is a very undesirable way to purchase seeds. 
Many worthless grasses, worse than weeds, are thus introduced 
into pastures. The table on page 330 shows the composition of 
eight mixtures which I have recently analysed. In only two 
of these can the selection of the grasses be regarded as at all 
satisfactory. 
A worse mixture was sent by a member who had taken it 
from the bulk of what an out-going tenant-farmer was sowing 
on the land, perhaps in ignorance of its true nature, but with 
the prospect of securing compensation for laying down the field. 
