The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-08
HENCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A
SEED INSPECTION DEPART
MENT AT WASHINGTON.
| BOON TO AGRrcULrUR1srs.
They Can Have Their Seed Inspect
ed Free of COst-Where Weeds
Come From.
Special to the Globe.


agriculture. Success in agriculture
| depends upon the seed which is plant
| ed more than anything else; even the
weather No matter how good the soil
may be, or how favorable the weather,
| if the farmers plant poor seed, they
| will have poor crops.
''The work of seed inspection is bas-
ed largely on similar work which has
| been carried on for thirty years or
more in Europe, where there is at
the present time in the neighborhood
| of 100 seedtesting stations. The OBJ
! ject of these stations is to secure to
the farmers some means by which they
can be assured of getting f1rst-class
seed. Nearly all of the bad weeds in
this country are introduced into fields
through seed which is bought for SOW
ing.
THE farmers are at a disadvantage
in this matter of buying seed because
they cannot tell by the looks of the
seeds whether they are fresh or not,
or if they are exactly the kind which
! purchasers desire. In case they are not
what they are recommended to be, each
! farmer not only loses the price of the
seed, but also the time and labor eX-
! pended on them, as it is often too late
to start another crop. Thus you will
see it is exceedingly important to the
| farmer to know that the purchased
seed is true to it's name. On the tests
! of this department many of the seed
dealers throughout the country have
voluntarily guaranteed their seeds.
They are tested to show their purity,
vitality and genuineness.
There has been great agitation in
this country about the Russian thistle,
| which spread over a good share of the
Northwest, and congress was asked 10
appropriate $1,000,000 for the purpose
OF discriminating that agricultural pest
1t has been proved that the obnoxious
weed came here in faXseed. The wild
onion which grows around the nation
al capitol and gets in the milk and
| butter was spread through winter oats
In fact, nearly all weeds are developed
! by being mixed with good seed; and
| thus are planted by the farmers them
selves.
The work of this division has for it's
| first object the creation of a sentiment
among the farmers and those planting
seed. in favor of good seed, so that
| they will know the difference between
bad and good seed, and be willing to
| pay reasonably larger price In order
to obtain that which is the best
"A second object of this division is
to place a check on seed dealers so
that they cannot sell poor seed to farm
ers, as is done in a great many cases
! at the present time. For example, we
| have just received a lot of samples to
| be examined. One is seed and fruit of
| the German coffee berry, which is sold
as a novelty at Is cents for a small
| package. When tested we found the
| seed to be in reality the sega bean,
which costs only about Is cents per
| pound. The above is fair sample Of
the way some seed men impose upon
the public. Their catalogues are full
| of advertisements of new and rare
wonderful varieties, which turn out 10
be fraudulent.
Another is a sample of Kentucky
| blue grass, which was sold as first
class seed and should have sprouted 50
| to go per cent, whereas only 10 per
| cent sprouted. 1t is thus seen that
INSCRIPTIONS seedmen do not hesitate
| to palm off old stock which has be-
| come useless, on the unsuspecting
| farmers The prevention of this injus-
tice is another of the branches of work
of this division. Another late sample
| is that of Alfalfa clover, which is most
| extensively grown in the West, par
| ticularly in the Rocky mountain re-
| gions. 1t was sent to this country
from Turkestan, and on being tested
was found to contain nearly 5000 seeds
of dodder to pound. Dodder is lit
| tie plant that looks like silk, and lives
entirely by wrapping itself around the
| SprOuting clover and sucking away it's
vitality. 1t is one of the worst weeds
introduced into this country. This seed
is very small and resembles pieces Of
dirt so that only an expert can detect
its presence. 1t is our duty to warn
the people against it.
Another Of the lot, is a sample of
red clover tailings' from Germany,
which is sold to American dealers at
212 cents per pound to use in adulter-
ating clover seed. This sample con-
tanned but per cent of clover seed
and the balance is bad weed seed.
There is a plant which belongs to
| the clover family resembling the clover
very much, but which is of very little
use as a forage plant, called yellow
treefoil. The seeds of this plant close
ly resemble in size, shape, and color
| those of the alfalfa and other clover
The seed is shipped into this country
in large quantities at the present time
for the sole purpose Of adulterating
clover seed. Treefoil seed is very
| much cheaper than clover seed, and
trouble in selling it for clover seed.
THE secretary of agriculture offers
| to test seed free for anybody who
sends here. Farmers or seedmen can
avail themselves Of this opportunity,
and the department makes reports to
| them of the result Of the tests. We
| test the samples as soon as they are
received. We select a small portion of
| the seed sent in. having first thoro-
ughly mixed the whole, so as to OBJ
| tain the average condition of the seed,
and after selecting this small portion,
we carefully examine it to obtain the
poor seed and impurities. We sep
arate all of the weed seed and thus
| obtain the percentage of poor seed
After this is done the seed is put to
| the sprouting test. The seeds for
sprouting are placed in soil in the de-
partment green houses and also in the
! terminating chamber, and given the
proper conditions of moisture and at
me sphere, and a careful daily record
| is kept of the seeds which sprout. In
| this way the percentage of germinat-
ing, or vitality Of the seed is ascer-
! tanned. g
I'VE also test allSof the seed which is
distributed by the department of ag-
riculture 1t is a well known fact that
| in previous years, some seedmen i'm
posed upon the department and as a
result poor seed has been distributed
by the department. unwittingly. At
the present time all seed purchased by
us must come up to the high standard
| of purity which has been fixed by the
| department, and the percentage of
! purity is determined by this division.
1--WE have also devised a standard ap-
| paratus or terminating chamber for
| sprouting seed which has been adopt
! ed by the American Association of EX-
| pertinent Stations, and is being used