The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-12-18

Kent'y Blue +" " :" 3 "
Alsike " n "
White " e. "
This is a heavy loss to the farmer.
DR.. Battle says:
Except in regard to the larger
sort of seeds, such as cotton, corn,
peas, &C., the seeds of field crops are
rarely sold entirely free from an ad-
mixture of weed seeds. Indeed, most
OF the weeds now so troublesome in
our cultivated fields are European
plants, which were originally intro
duced and widely disseminated in
packages of imported seeds.
While the entire exclusion of weed
seeds from packages of clover, grass
and small grain seed is not to be ex-
pected, the farmer is justified in de-
handing that the real worth of the
seeds he purchases shall come up to a
reasonable standard. A number of
samples of grass and clover seeds re-
Gently tested at this Station fall so far
below such a standard as to convey
the impression that they may have
been adulterated, with fraudulent in
tent, by the seed growers.
The seeds of no two species of
plants are exactly alike in size and
weight; and. since manufacturers now
supply automatic cleaning machinery
OF very great perfection, there can be
no excuse for putting upon the market
such seed, for instance, as a sample of
Red-top examined, which contained
$3.50 per cent. of impurities; and of
the pure seed only So per cent. were
capable of sprouting; or, in other
words, in the sample there were only
1892 per cent. of pure vital seed.
Carelessness on the part of the
grower, and a desire to furnish cheaper
seeds than competitors, have much to
do with the marketing of such impure
and seml-worthless seed. The seeds
men are, however, not wholly to blame
in this matter.
So long as farmers and gardeners
demand cheap seeds, regardless of
quality, just so long will persons be
found to cater to the demand, even
though they are obliged to debase the
quality to make up for the low price.
Very cheap seeds should be always
viewed with suspicion. They are
usually the most expensive things that
the farmer car buy.
Concerning cheap seeds DR.. William
C%urruthers, botanist to the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, in a
report to that body, remarks:
1t is impossible to estimate the in.
jury that an agriculturist does to him.
self when to save a few shillings in
the spring by purchasing inferior seed,
he insures at harvest a crop not only
poor in itself, but abundantly mixed
with seeds of worthless and noxious
weeds, whose injury to his crops does
end when they are cut down with
the grain. In buying dirty seed he is
acquiring material which may prove
serious injury to his crops for years
to come
The Southern farmer who BUYS
such seed loses not only the present
money he invests in the purchase of
seed and fertilizers, and in the prepa-
ration of the land, but also the value
Of. the increase he might reasonably
nave expected. But this is not all.
The cost of Graduating the weeds
whose seeds he has unwittingly sown,
md the injury they do to his succeed
ng crops, must also be considered.
)ne sample of clover seed recently
Examined at this Station contained
yer FIVE per cent. of dodder seeds.
dodder is a parasitic plant which
eeds upon the juices of cultivated
lants. 1t is extremely difficult to get
id of when once introduced into a field.
is seed have been known to sprout
fter having been buried in the earth
or four or five years. {
The following standard of purity ,
nd vitality of agricultural seeds has t
cen established by the Royal Agri-
1ltural Society of England: s
1. That 95 per cent, by weight of {
le seed shall be true seeds of the
claimed.
2. That of the pure seed not less t
Ian 80 per cent. shall be capable of a
'routing in the case of the ~clovers, h
le cereals and Timothy grass. Of C