102 THE ADULTERATION OF SEEDS ACT. 
lated from the profits of the Exhibition of 1851, have announced the first of 
this series of annual exhibitions which is to be confined to selected works ot 
fine and industrial art. The conditions under which this Exhibition is to take 
■place are fully explained in a notice which will be found m another part oi 
this Journal. It will be especially noticed that there will be no prizes, but a 
certificate for having obtained the distinction of admission to the Exhibition, 
will be given to each exhibitor. 
NITRO-GLYCERINE. 
The Bill to prohibit the importation, and to restrict and regulate the manu¬ 
facture, sale, and carriage, of nitro-glycerine,.—a copy of which was inserted 
in our last number,—was, with some rather important modifications, passed 
at the end of the Session, on the 11th of August.. The title of the Act re¬ 
mains as it stood in the Bill, “ to prohibit for a limited period etc., but tne 
section limiting the time during which the Act shall remain in force has been 
struck out. Other minor alterations have been made, but not, however, ma¬ 
terially affecting the provisions of the Act. We are unable from press ol 
matter to insert the Act this month, but will do so in our next number. 
THE ADULTERATION OE SEEDS ACT, 1869. 
This Act, which, like that last noticed, received the royal assent on the 11th 
of August, is intended for the protection of agriculturists against the prac¬ 
tice of supplying seeds, such as clover and other grass seeds, for use in agri¬ 
culture, which have been fraudulently adulterated by processes .which appear 
to have been extensively adopted. There are many seeds which so tar re¬ 
semble each other in appearance that to ordinary observers they may pass 
for the same sort, and others which differ only in colour, yet these seeds may 
yield plants which are widely different. The farmer, therefore, in purchasing 
seeds for sowing on his land, may have two or more sorts mixed together 
which he cannot distinguish until they have germinated and grown into 
plants. The fraudulent dealer who supplies him with adulterated seeds, m 
order to elude detection, destroys the germinating power, and sometimes also 
alters the colour of the seeds used for adulteration, and it is these practices 
that are rendered punishable by the Adulteration of Seeds Act. The Act 
specifies that “ every person who, with intent to. defraud, or to enable an¬ 
other person to defraud, does any of the following things: that is to say, 
(1) kills or causes to be killed any seeds; or (2) dyes or causes to be dyed 
any seeds; or (3) sells or causes to be sold any killed or dyed seeds, shall be 
punishable as follows : that is to say, (1) for the first offence he shall be 
liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds; (2) for the second and any 
subsequent offence, he shall be liable to pay a penalty not exceeding fifty 
pounds.” The Court may also order the name of the offender and the offence 
of which he has been found guilty to be advertised at his expense. 
