190 REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF THE 
clover. One of these was a quantity of alfalfa seed purchased by 
the Station in Geneva in 1904. It was heavily adulterated with 
yellow trefoil and also contained a considerable amount of the two 
species of bur clover. Some of the seed was sown and the resulting 
plants of bur clover identified as Medicago Iuspida and M. arabica. 
In 1908 a sample from Oswego contained nine per ct. of yellow 
trefoil and two per ct. of bur clover. A sample of alfalfa seed sent 
to the Station from Canandaigua in 1904 showed 30 per ct. yellow 
trefoil and 4 per ct. bur clover. Another sample from Canandaigua 
in 1905 contained 44.4 per ct. yellow trefoil and 3.9 per ct. bur 
clover. This last sample has a court history which it may be weil 
to relate since it has a bearing on the responsibility of seed dealers 
for damages resulting from the use of adulterated seed. 
In June, 1904, G. M. Depew of Canandaigua, N. Y., sowed a 
I5-acre field with alfalfa using 30 pounds of seed per acre. Two- 
thirds of the field was sown with seed purchased from the Peck 
Hardware Co., Canandaigua, N. Y., and the remaining five acres 
with seed from another seed dealer.. In the fall of 1904 the stand 
of alfalfa appeared good, but in the latter part of May, 1905, a 
part of the plants supposed to be alfalfa produced yellow blossoms. 
Specimens were sent to the Experiment Station where they were 
identified as yellow trefoil, Medicago lupulina. In a letter accom- 
panying the specimens Mr. Depew stated that the yellow-flowered 
plant constituted one-half the crop. We advised him to plow up the 
field and reseed it. This he did about the middle of July, 1905. 
He then sent to the Station a sample of the seed left over from 
sowing the last five acres. An analysis of this seed showed it to 
contain 44.4 per ct. yellow trefoil and 3.9 per ct. bur clover besides 
some minor impurities and dodder at the rate of 114 seeds per 
pound. Upon being threatened with a suit for damages the dealer 
who sold this seed settled. The Peck Hardware Co., however, re- 
fused to settle and was sued for damages as follows: 
Loss of one year’s crop of alfalfa on ten acres... $700 00 
Plowing and fitting ten acres for reseeding...... 80 00 
Altalia seed, tovrsow ten acres; quae. « tai) otis 42 00 
otal warint, BideoRpabes i.e Ree memeneaer ey blac adele oe $822 00 
The case was tried in the Ontario County Court at Canandaigua 
in June, 1906. As to whether the seed had been-bought upon an 
