Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1911-04-20
FARM 41N1 ORCHARD
Notes and Instructions from Agricultural Colleges Experiment
of Oregon Washington Specially Pacific Coast Conditions

I |
grasses and similar seed, it appears
: perfectly evident, that both in purity
and viability, the bulk of the seed now
being sown by farmers in the North
west is decidedly inferior, and with
absolute certainty this prophesies the
harvest.
The grass seed samples tested show
even greater need of minute examina-
tion before purchase of seed. So far
this year only two samples of Red Top
have been received that were up to
standard in purity. Two-thirds of all
the Orchard Grass samples examined
were below the standard of purity that
it is possible to obtain. The best
sample of Kentucky blue grass exam
ined contained 81 per cent of pure
seed, while the standard of purity for
this species is 80 per cent. The stand
ard of termination for Red clover is
95 per cent, yet the average germina-
tion of the samples so far examined
by the laboratory this year is 73 per
cent. To illustrate how dangerous it
may be to SOW seed containing a small
percentage of impurities, the exact
analysis of sample of what was sold
for mixture of timothy and alsike is
given as follows:
Timothy, sc per cent; alsike clover,
IA per cent; other cultivated grass
! seeds, 5 per cent; trash, per cent;
foreign seeds, 6 per cent
Although the amount of foreign
seeds is only per cent, and may pos
sibly be considered of no consequence,
yet a list of the weed seed contained
in this 6 per cent of foreign seeds fol-
lows:
Plantain, Cinquefoil, Black-seeded
plantain, mouse-ear chickweed, sorrel,
pepper grass, evening primrose, witch
grass, shepherds purse, small crab
grass, night-fowering catchfy, sedge,
slender spike rush, lambs quarters,
amaranth, brown-eyed Susan, woolly
panicum, crab grass, May weed, dod-
der, syperus, small-seeded false flax,
hedge mustard, nerved mamma grass,
green foxtail, white vervain, curled
dock, sporobolus sp., three-seeded
mercury, forked catchfy, sleepy
catchfy, yellow wood sorrel, sinuate-
leaved evening primrose, Canada this
tie, horsemint, lyespus sp., rush.
Total weeds seeds per pound of sam
pie, Is, 500.
Although the farmer received only
eighty-fve cents worth of good seed
for every dollar he paid out, yet, when
the weed seeds he has sown on his
farm are considered, it is not hard to
realize how enormously Improbable
his seeding will prove at harvest time.
1t is this seeding of the land to worth
less plants and noxious weeds that is
causing the farmers of the Northwest
the loss of thousands of dollars an
nually from the inferior crop produced
and the labor wasted. Nor can the
Of the seedsmen in the
Northwest be considered the cause of
this enormous annual waste. The
seedsmen of this region are, for the
most part, trying to do their best, but
# the farmer accepts and pays for in
ferior seed as readily as for the best,
little encouragement is given to the
honest scotsman to search out seed of
nigh quality and refuse to sell any
hing else.
Only by insisting upon pure, viable
seed will the farmer secure, and final
y force the scotsman to carry nothing
Else. Farmer and scotsman alike
nave at their immediate service, free
# all cost, the cooperative seed test
ng laboratory at Corvallis, which has
)ut the one purpose, that of aiding
10Th dealer and grower in securing and
sowing high-quality seed.
Hence, my friend, look well to your
eeding, so that in the golden harvest
ime your present expectations may
lot be discounted. Begin at the be-
ginning. Use naught but seed of
quality, pure and of high vitality, and
IS logically as effect follows cause, so
will come to you at harvest
he opportunity to reap in profit that
which you have sown with precaution.