I. 
SEED TESTS. 
By GERALD MCCARTHY, Botanist. 
During the year 1889 the North Carolina Experiment Station has 
completed analyses and tests of about 1,500 samples of seed. A 
large portion of these samples were purchased by the Station in 
North Carolina or sent for examination by farmers; the rest were 
procured directly from the seedsmen who put them up, and were, in 
most ca-es, donated to the Station. It is only fair to the various 
seedsmen, whose seeds Ifave been tested and reported upon in this 
Bulletin, to acknowledge that, with the exception of clovers and 
lucerne seed, most of the different kinds of seeds tested were found 
true to name and reasonably free from impurities. The low vitality 
shown by many of the samples—such, for instance, as those con¬ 
tained in the Table II—were due to staleness of the seeds. Stale 
seeds, unless they have been “ doctored,” are easily recognizable by 
an experienced person. They are usually lustreless, which is due to 
the absorption of the oil, which is always present in the seed-coat of 
fresh seeds. When stale seeds are found in packets, the containing 
packets are more or less stained and dirty, and such seeds should 
never be purchased. Stale lucerne seed has lost its shiny, greenish 
color, and become dull and brown and more or less withered. Bed 
clover seed also becomes brown with age. In our warm and humid 
climate, the vitality of seeds, and especially of Northern-grown seeds, 
deteriorates very rapidly; and seeds of two years old are, as a rule, 
not worth sowing. Yet, we find that most retail dealers in seeds act 
in utter disregard of this fact. They seem to think the quality of 
seeds in packets, like that of meats in cans, is of indefinite duration, 
and “warranted to keep in any climate.” Except clover and grass- 
seeds, nearly all seeds sold in this market are put up in sealed 
packets* which are marked with the name of the seedsman who put 
them up. Some seedsmen place upon their packets the words “ war¬ 
ranted ” or “ guaranteed,” but as no details as to the nature of the 
warrant or the quality guaranteed are given, this must be regarded 
as a mere bait to catch the credulous. Most seedsmen distinctly 
disclaim all responsibility for the quality of the seeds in their packets. 
The jeweller warrants his watches and rings to be of a certain 
fineness and weight; the honest dry goods man warrants his wares 
to be all-wool, or all-linen or as the case may be ; and so also with 
the shoe dealer, grocer and other merchants. There is no real and 
valid reason why the seed merchant should not also give a real and 
definite guarantee of the quality of his wares! The necessity of such 
a guarantee, for the protection of the purchaser, is much more 
urgent in regard to seeds than in any of the above-mentioned cases. 
The first cost of seeds is comparatively small, compared with the 
