Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1883. 335 
Composition of Sixteen Samples of Grass Mixture. 
Inferior Grasses. 
Better Grasses. 
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The only method to prevent the use of seeds which may prove, 
for years to come, worthless, if not positively baneful in new 
pastures, is to follow the advice of the Botanical Committee, and, 
having decided what shall be the ingredients of a mixture, and 
what the proportions of the various ingredients, to purchase 
them separately, and to test their purity and germination before 
sowing. 
I have examined sixty-one samples of clovers. They have all 
been free from the seeds of dodder, and generally free from 
weeds. Only one case of serious adulteration came under mv 
notice. It was a sample of white clover {Trifolium re-pens. Linn, j 
which contained fifty-two per cent, of the seeds of hare's- 
foot clover {Trifolium arvense, Linn.), a weed often used for 
chimney-piece decoration during the winter, because of its long 
downy heads, but rejected by all kinds of animals. Twenty- 
eight samples of Trifolium j)ratense, Linn., have been sent to 
me, half under the name of cow-grass, and the other half as 
perennial red clover. The greater portion of these were higher 
than the germination standard recommended by the Council, 
and the remainder very nearly reached, with the exception of 
two samples which did not reach, fifty per cent. The samples of 
alsike were also satisfactory, the larger proportion being up to 
