The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-02-11
INSPECTION AND
TESTING OF SEEDS
HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER
SEEDS WILL GERMINATE
The Ranch'' Comments Upon a Re-
cent Article in the Islander and
Interviews a Scotsman Two
Grades of Grass Seeds.

In recent issue the ISLANDER
published short article relating to
poor grass seed and quoting one we'll
known farmer as suggesting the pas
sage of a state law providing for seed
inspection. The item attracted the
attention of the editor of The Ranch,
of Seattle, one of the states best ag-
ricultural journals, which com m ents
upon it as follows
'This is matter Of vital import
ance to every one who sows grass
seed, but it is evident that few of
them realize how easy it is to find out
before sowing whether the seed will
germinate or not. 1t is likely that
the trouble referred to by the ISLAND
Err is due more to the failure of the
ting quality of their seed than to the
sale of poor seed by seed houses.
In the first place, the seed may have
been purchased from unrelia b e
houses, and, second, it's terminating
power was not ascertained before
sowing, as should have been done.
'The item in the ISLANDER w5s
shown to gentleman in Seattle who
has been in seed houses for many
years. He said:
If they had the inspection they re-
fer to they would find out that the.
trouble usually was the carelessness
on the part of the farmer and not
with seed that would not germinate.
That yarn about seed not germina-
ting is the first thing the fellow who
knows little jumps onto when the
question comes up. AS a matter of
fact, there is not five per cent of all
the seed garden or grass sold in the
United States, whether by reliable
seed houses or otherwise, that lacks
germinati ting powers. Especially in
grass seed there is no occasion for it.
Seed houses don't buy seed and hold it
until it will not grow. They would
rather have the money to use in other
WAYS, and if ten tons of rye grass
will last the season it would be fool
ishness to buy twenty. AS to foul
seeds, there may be some truth in
that, and will be as long as people
want cheap prices, rather than quail
ity. Almost every seed house carries
two grades and people can get what
they want. The protection lies with
the farmer himself
Continuing it's own comments The
Ranch, says furtner:
"Every farmer should understand
that the vitality (Which means how
many will grow of seeds can be easily
ascertained No one can tell by
merely looking at the seed whether
it will germinate or not. Had we
government inspectors they would pur-
sue the same course for testing seeds
as to their vitality as the farmer
can pursue himself Buy your seeds
of a reliable house and be willing to
paw a little more for better grade.
It never pays to try to save few
cents per hundred pounds by pur-
chasing the cheaper grades = and
the reliable seed houses would not
keep the cheap grades if the farmers
did not demand those grades. This
is a condition that has been forced
upon them by numerous unscrupu-
lous dealers who will sell you choice
clover seed that contains one-half
clover seed, one-fourth fox tail grass
seed and one fourth fine sand-or some
thing like that,
ssWhen you have secured your seed
take out hundred or so, supposing
it to be clover seed you are testing.
Get two or three ordinary plates and
two pieces of flannel cloth for each.
Dampen the cloths, lay on the plate
and sprinkle quantity of the seed
on it, then lay the other cloth On top,
pressing down so the two fiannels
are in close contact. Put the plate
away in warm place, and in three
days YOU can tell what proportion OF
the seed will germinate by counting
the number that have sprouted and
those that have not. Be careful to
keep the cloths dampened during the
entire time of making the test. Some
seeds will require more than three
days, but the farmer can usually de-
termine when the fertile seeds have
all sprouted. When this test is made
there will be no occasion to blame the
seed houses after putting the seed in
to the ground.