Adulteration of Seeds. 
23 
(lence of the impostor's })r;ictices. Accordingly the seed was 
returned ; but, as it was sold for delivery in London, its removal 
thence without examination prevented me, by the custom of the 
trade, from enforcing the claim to compensation ; although it is 
verv doubtful, 1 believe, whether the law would not have given 
me redress, and a sound legal decision on this point would be of 
gi'eat service to the trade. 
Sainfoin. 
Sainfoin-seed rarely vegetates well if kept over till the fol- 
lowing vear, and the best judges cannot always tell old seed 
from new. If the seed breaks down hard and dry, if it has a 
dull appearance, a suspicion may be very fairly entertained that 
it is old, — a suspicion which should only be dispelled by trial 
of growth, under ordinary circumstances of temperature ; for I 
have known sainfoii^-seed to vegetate strongly when planted in 
a hot-bed, which did not produce a single plant when sown 
in tlie field. 
I'or a series of vears I have made trials of the growth of 
parcels of sainfoin-seeds passing through my hands, and I have 
rai'ely found the growing seeds exceed 90 per cent, in good 
samples received direct from the grower ; the more common 
range of growth of genuine parcels is from 75 to 85 per cent. ; 
lots of doubtful character fall much lower than this. 
The spurious seeds most commonl}' found in sainfoin-seed are 
the common brome-grass and burnet, which are extremely diffi- 
cult to remove. The burnet is of similar colour, and nearly or 
quite equal in weight and size with the sainfoin-seed, so as not 
to be readilv distinguished by a casual examination of the 
sample, although the plants in the field are quickly discerned. 
With the exception of samples of giant sainfoin grown from the 
second crop — i. e. after a crop of hay — v/hich are usually free 
from burnet, I believe nearly every other parcel offered upon the 
market contains burnet to a greater or less extent. It is true 
once or twice in a season a parcel may be bought very nearly 
free from admixture ; but, as a rule, it is impossible to sell 
sainfoin without burnet unless the seed is hand-picked, — a 
process too tedious and expensive to be resorted to. The sain- 
foin imported from France to a very considerable extent rarely 
contains less than 2 per cent, of burnet, and as much as 5 per 
cent, is a common admixture. 
If the young sainfoin layers are fed hard with sheep they lose 
plant and the burnet rapidly increases, and hence the seedsman 
sometimes gets more blame than he is fairly entitled to ; other- 
wise a small quantity of burnet is not injurious to the crop. If 
the farmer considers it essential that his sainfoin should be per- 
