Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-12
Remarklng that this is the week in
!: LOOKER-ON in IOWA +;
acknowledgements

Garwin, Jan. 12.-On a recent visit
to the Iowa State College at Ames, the
writer met several of the department
professors and picked up what follows
in the regard to the work Iowa is DO
ing along the line of preventing the
sale of poor agricultural seeds. Ihere
is quite feeling that this work should
be done by and in control of the d.
rectors of the Iowa agricultural eX-
pertinent station Others including
Senator Newberry and Representative
Van Houton favor placing this In the
hands of the dairy commissioner III
may be that the latter can do TINS
kind of work and investigation salts
factorily. but at first thought such in
yestigation seems naturally to belong
to the department of botany, consis-
tently expert in this kind of investi-
CATION.
Numerous omplaints have beer
made during the past few years OF the
poor quality of much of the grain ana
flower seed sold in the state The very
real and growing danger of the intro
duction of noxious weeds in such
seeds, has made some regulation for
the protection OF the purchaser irnper-
ative. The state board of agriculture
designated committee consisting or
Governor Packard, Prof. c. f. Curtiss
and State Dairy and Food Commas
sioner Wright to investigate this
problem. This committee has prepar-
ed, and presented to the state board
OF agriculture, draft of n bill de-
signed to restrict and regulate the sale
of impure adulterated and misbranded
seeds.
professor l.. II. Pammel of the Iowa
State College and his assistants have
been investigating for some months,
the purity of the seeds offered for sale
In this state. They not only found
that nearly every sample studied con-
samples in which percentages were
definitely determined, in some cases
the impurities amounted to Is per cent.
The average for red clover, was 1913
per cent. Alfalfa and timothy were
somewhat better and, Alsike poorer.
On an average the farmer pays TWEEN
ty-six cents for the impurities found
in every 100 pounds of red clover seed,
twelve cents for impurities in alfalfa,
fifty-one cents for impurities in Alsike
and twenty-three cents for impurities
in timothy. The percentage of impur-
ity varies greatly. In a few instances
poor seed was offered for sale. A sim
gle sample will illustrate the import
ance of carrying on this line of inves-
tigation by the Iowa Agricul-
3tural Experiment Station. 1t has
been estimated that clover seed con-
tanned 1 per cent of weed seeds as
impurities, that is, about 1000 weed
seeds per pound. In another case
where the weed impurities were az
per cent, the number of weed seeds
was 200. If fifteen pounds We're
sown per acre, the farmer planted
about 414,000 seeds of weeds which
have equal chance with the crops In
which they grow. In one instance in
vestigated by the station the weed
seeds found in the clover would have
thoroughly sown field of ten acres
with Canadian thistle at the rate of
10000 seeds per acre, 1900 bull this
addition fox-t tail and other seeds to
the amount Of 100000 per acre.
I'm many cases clover seed had a
very low degree of vitality. In one
case, only per cent Of the clover seed
terminated and the average per cent
of termination in all samples tested
was only 70 for the plump seeds and
80 for the shrunken seeds. In Europe
where seed regulation is very strict,
many seed merchants sell, clover seed
that terminates above 80 per cent, in
fact some give a guarantee OF 96 per
cent purity and 95 per cent vitality.
Last spring the seed was uniformly
high in price. The farmer cannot af-
ford to pay such high prices for seed
when so much of it does not germin-
ate 1t is very evident that in many
cases, old seed was mixed with the
new and this accounts in part for the
low vitality. Instances have come to
light where seed dealers have pur-
posely bought up old and weed seeds
for the purpose of mixing with the
new and good seed. Quite a good
many of the samples contained Canad-
ian thistle and other noxious weeds,
some also contain dodder. These weeds
the farmer does not care to introduce.
That these have in the past been in
troduced is very evident in many parts
of the state. The value ofrland badly
infested with quack grass has been
known to depreciate from $50 to SIS
and $40 an acre. 1t costs as much to
rid land of such weeds as to clear 1T
of timber. 1t will cost the farmers of
the state a good many thousand dol
lars to exterminate the Canadian this
tie, quack grass and dodder, introduced
carelessly with impure seeds.
Several states have passed excellent
laws, among these we may mention
Kentucky and Maine, and a recent re-
port issued by the Kentucky agricul-
tural station shows that the Kentucky
law has greatly improved quality OF