Cleaned, Treated and Tested Seed 
5 
case of an extremely bad lot of seed, it would prevent a complete 
failure and the loss of labor and land. 
A farmer several years ago planted twelve acres presumably to 
rape. His stand was a heavy, luxurious crop of wild mustard, one of 
our most noxious weeds. An analysis of the seed would have saved 
his labor and land and loss of the crop for that year. 
High-priced seed is usually the cheapest seed. Someone has 
gone to the trouble to clean the seed, to remove from it various im¬ 
purities such as dirt, stones, chaff, broken seeds and noxious weed 
seeds, and consequently a better price must be asked for such seed. 
However, we have seen low-priced seed with a quality as high as that 
of high-priced seed. Testing determines the actual quality of the 
seed exposed for sale or intended for planting. 
Actual Planting Value of Seed. —The quantity of seed to plant 
per acre varies widely and is determined by a large number of 
different conditions. In this Bulletin emphasis will be placed upon 
the relation between quality of seed and the proper amount to plant 
per acre. This brings us to the consideration of the actual value of a 
lot of seed. 
There are two chief factors in considering the quality of seed. 
First, purity. That is, its degree of freedom from sticks, stones, 
chaff, dirt, weed seed and other seeds. Second, vitality. That is, 
its power to germinate readily and produce vigorous sprouts. If 
both purity and vitality are high, the amount of seeds necessary 
to plant per acre in order to secure a heavy stand will be less than 
if either the purity or vitality, or both, are low. 
The actual plamting value of a lot of seed is secured by multi¬ 
plying the percentage of purity by the percentage of germination 
of pure seed. 
Let us illustrate with specific cases: Wheat of standard purity 
has a purity percentage of 99. Standard germination of wheat is 
90% to 95%. Let us assume that the seed wheat is up to standard, 
with a germination of 93%. The actual planting value of this 
standard wheat will be 99 times 93, or approximately 92%. That 
is, on the basis of seed that contains no impurities and with every 
grain viable, we may expect to get 92% value from the seed. In 
other words, for every 100 pounds of seed sown, one would sow but 
92 pounds of good seed. 
Let us take a case now in which the germination is down to 90% 
j, and the purity down to 90%. This seed would not be considered 
hopelessly bad, but its actual planting value is only 81% as com¬ 
pared with 92% for seed giving a test considered standard. Let us 
take a case in which the yield from planting standard seed wheat 
is 40 bushels per acre. This year the value of an acre of $2.20 wheat 
would be $88.00. If we planted the seed with an 81% planting 
