Mr.  W illiam  Carrutliers. 
7 
apparent  if  we  note  the  germination  of  pure  seeds  guaranteed  in 
the  catalogue  of  one  of  the  first  firms  to  ofller  guaranteed  seeds. 
Foxtail  is  guaranteed  80  per  cent,  and  with  it  wood-  and  rough- 
stalked  meadow  grasses,  while  in  all  the  others  the  guarantee 
is  from  90  to  99  per  cent.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 
financial  gain  to  the  farmers  of  England  which  has  resulted 
from  this  action  of  the  Society.  But  it  is  distressing  that  so 
very  large  a proportion  of  farmers  still  cling  to  their  old  and 
wasteful  methods  of  purchase. 
Two  Kinds  of  Seed  Merchants. 
We  must  distinguish  in  speaking  of  seed  merchants,  between 
one  who  knows  what  he  is  dealing  in,  and  another  who  only 
retails  seeds  that  have  been  supplied  to  him  under  certain 
names.  The  latter  does  nothing  whatever  to  raise  the  standard 
of  his  seed.  The  former  knows  the  characteristics  of  each 
kind  of  seed,  and  the  impurities  that  are  present  ; he  has 
appliances  for  removing  these  impurities  and  for  testing  the 
germination  of  the  pure  seeds.  The  improved  quality  of  the 
seed  is  due  entirely  to  his  effort.  In  1895  an  attempt  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  quality  of  seeds  sold  in  market  towns, 
where  the  irresponsible  retailer  chiefly  carries  on  his  business. 
By  the  kindness  of  members  of  the  Society  small  parcels  of 
seeds  were  obtained  from  such  towns.  The  results  of  their 
examination  were  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Society  for 
1896.  There  were  some  good  seeds  among  them,  hut  the  great 
majority  were  inferior.  Two  bad  samples  may  be  quoted,  to 
show  the  great  loss  that  befalls  the  farmer  who  purchases  seeds 
without  a guarantee  of  purity  and  germination.  In  a merchant’s 
catalogue  for  1895  the  seeds  of  foxtail  guaranteed  to  germinate 
85  per  cent,  cost  Is.  Qd.  per  pound.  To  secure  that  one  pound 
of  germinating  seeds  should  be  sown,  it  is  necessary  to  add  to 
the  pound  (composed  of  85  per  cent,  good  seeds,  and  15  per 
cent,  worthless  chaff)  2'8  ounces  of  the  same  bulk,  to  supply 
the  lacking  15  per  cent,  of  good  seeds.  This  makes  the  price 
of  one  pound  of  germinating  seed  Is.  ^d.  A farmer  the  same 
year  bought  seeds  of  the  same  grass  at  Is.  2d.  per  pound,  but 
the  germination  was  only  6 per  cent,  so  that  16f  pounds  had 
to  be  purchased  to  obtain  one  pound  of  germinating  seeds,  and 
for  this  the  farmer  would  have  had  to  pay  19s.  &d.  The  same 
merchant  in  his  catalogue  offered  one  pound  of  germinating 
seeds  of  rough-stalked  meadow  grass  for  Is.  &d.,  while  the 
farmer  would  have  had  to  pay  7s.  9J(i.  to  his  country  merchant 
for  the  same  quantity  of  germinating  seeds. 
Condition  op  Seed  Trade  in  Ireland. 
The  investigation  in  1894  and  1895  of  a large  series  of  farm 
seeds  purchased  in  various  localities  in  Ireland  on  behalf  of 
