Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-12

to reclean them.
 Many of the states have laws against the sale of adulterated seeds, and some of the states enforce the laws they have; but none of the laws of which 1 have any knowledge are really effective. They sometimes serve to palliate the evil: none of them strike at its root
 What is needed is a universal, coun- try-wide law which shall govern the production of the seeds; which shall compel the man who grows seeds to grow them pure or. winnow and sift and pick out of them every single foul seed which may happen to get into them Such thing may be difficult but it is not impossible Moreover, it would strike the evil stream at its spring and prevent it from damaging crops along it's course Still more as there are fewer producers than there are retailers, it would take less de- tective work and cost less to watch them than the dealers.
 "pure seed law" is as practicable and as much needed as a pure food law" Let it be made illegal for any one, anywhere, to sell any seeds un- less they have first been tested and proven pure by expert examiners, and unless every package bears the talis- manic inspected ana passed" of
 
 with the date of inspection and the number of the inspector. Then, if by chance John Farmer found mustard growing in his oats or dodder in his timothy he would know where and whom to kick. AS it is, now, we buy what is offered us. and take what is measured out to us. It's all a matter of chance. We many get fairly good seed, tolerably pure, and we may get a mixture of seventeen different sorts of pests. The retailer buys what he can make profit from, and the wholesaler buys what he, also, can make a profit from. and the producer puts up the sort of stuff that the wholesaler is willing to pay for. Everybody has something to say or something to make out of it except the final buyer,-the farmer. He takes what he can get and pays what he is told to and is expected to feel grate- full that he is permitted to turn in his money for crab grass seed and sand.
 personally, am more interested in garden than in farm seeds. There is much less aduteratiOn in them; at least, much less mixture of foul seeds. l have come to learn the houses from which buy and there are some which are conscientiously careful about the grading of their seeds. At the same time, in my this seasons gardens, l 1uu du OCcdSlOUdl lOI1dJO growing III the onion< rows now and then a tall hard worthless pea among the dwarf wrinkled sorts; and so on. But I don't find any new weeds growing in the drilled rows. Those which come grow everywhere, showing that they were probably broadcasted with the grass or clover seed. some previous season.
 Really, find that, if one chooses his seed house with regard 70 it's reputation and it's performance In filling his orders. he need not do much complaining about his garden seeds. In other words, they are graded and cleaned till they are pure and true to name,
 The same thing is certainly possi- ble with distinctively farm seeds. But the only way to insure it is to make it impossible to put any but tested and certified seeds on the market
 The place to begin in purifying our. water-supply is at the source It doesn't do much good to take out dipper-full here and there, from the brook below, analyze it and report what impurities are in it. The things to do is to see that no impurities start in it at the spring.
 THE FARMER.