Clovcr-Secd and its Impurities. 
437 
Trifolium hi/bridum, Linn. (Fig. 4), or Alsiko, is a perennial 
smooth plant with flexuous hollow stems. The white or rose- 
coloured flowers are in loose globose heads on 
long stalks. The short pod contains two 
small dark seeds. 
In addition to the dead and imperfect seeds 
which one finds in clover-seed, a number of *!}&,*■ TrMKim Ay 
. . .. . . i • i briaum. Linn. Alslkc 
other ingredients are met with, which are 
either valueless or actively injurious to the farmer. These 
impurities in the great majority of cases can easily be got rid 
of by careful winnowing and silting, as they differ more or 
less from the seeds of the clover in weight and size. These 
operations require, of course, the exercise of great care and 
some labour with the seed ; but even if the expense of this 
must be borne by the farmer in the shape of a small increase in 
the price of seed, the money would be well spent, and should 
not be grudged. It is impossible to estimate the injury the 
agriculturist does to himself, when, in saving a few shillings in 
spring by the purchase of a cheap seed, he secures at harvest a 
crop of clover not only poor in itself, but abundantly mixed 
with worthless weeds whose injury to his crops are not terminated 
when they are cut down with the clover. The buyer is surely 
entitled to make absence from injurious seeds an element in his 
purchase, for in buying dirty seed he not only pays for foreign 
seed at the same rate as for the clover, but he is acquiring 
material which may prove a serious injury to his crops for years 
to come. 
It is not necessary here to enter into a general statement as 
to the evil of weeds, but it may be pointed out in a word or two 
that fast-growing weeds may smother and more or less injure 
the crop, and that every weed occupies the space and consumes 
the food provided for the crop as far as its influence extends, and 
that it is hopeless to attempt to rid clover of such impurities 
after the seed has been committed to the ground. 
On this account it is very important that the cultivator should 
be able to determine whether the seed he has purchased is pure, 
and to detect what impurities are present in it. The remainder 
of this paper will be accordingly devoted to descriptions of the 
impurities most frequently found in clover, in the hope that 
these and the accompanying illustrations may supply the 
reader with the necessary information for the examination of 
his seeds. 
Some of the seeds mixed with the special variety of the seed 
purchased are, of course, not injurious weeds ; and when they do 
not form any considerable proportion of the seed, they can 
scarcely be regarded as diminishing to any appreciable extent 
