How Many Seeds Grow?
One seed is not altogether like another, al¬
though the two may look alike. Suppose we
have three seeds of millet or of cabbage. One
may have a strong vitality and produce a strong
plant, another a feeble life and produce a weak
plant that with all our nursing is of small value,
and the third is dead before it is put into the
ground.
Now when the seedman sells us a package of
seeds of which one-third are dead, one-third sickly,
and one-third good, we feel that he ought to go
to prison, and have bread and water diet; and we
think it would be a wise thing for farmers to in¬
sist that such seedmen shall not be left free to de¬
fraud them from year to year in this manner with
impunity.
Most of the seedmen have printed on their
seed packages a declaration of their non-responsi-
bility after the seed has gone from them.
A law that should provide for every dealer in
seeds taking out a license before he may deal in
them, and the appointment of an inspector of
seeds, whose duties shall be similar to those of
the inspector of fertilizers, would save thousands
of dollars to the farmers of the State. We re¬
spectfully suggest to the Boards of Agriculture
that they petition then- respective Legislatures to
take action in this matter. It might be well for
the Board to appoint the inspector, who shall be
paid from the license fees.
Do you think this a small matter, and that cul¬
tivators are not damaged to the amount of thou¬
sands of dollars annually ? Do you think our il¬
lustration of one-third of the seeds in a package
being dead, and another third weak, far-fetched ?
Not only, we reply, may this be so, but much
ot the seed may be of a different kind from the
name on the package.
Prof. Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural Col¬
lege, has been examining into the germinative
power of seeds furnished by different seedmen
and with very interesting results. His plan has
been to take fifty seeds of a variety, plant them
under suitable conditions, and observe how many
" came up.” •
Of seeds sown from------------------- about
thirty-seven per cent, came up.
Of about forty-seven per cent.
1 '—————— about forty-nine per cent,
about twenty-three per cent.
Says Prof. Beal: “My hearers will draw their I some of o’^fa^1^
Of
Seed Selection. —In the first stage of the
growth of a plant, that stage which precedes the
eedmg of it from the soil, and while yet it se¬
cures its growth from the material stored in the
seed itself, we may often observe in the plant
of from two seeds of turnip, peas, or two kernelsot coin, a difference in the vigor of growth.
There may also be other differences.
Afterwards, in a rich soil, the differences may
not be so discernible. We think that in the
early-observed differences there may possibly be
a hint to the selecter of seed plants. It is possi¬
ble, if we would increase the vigor of growth of
. , a vigor desirable to
own conclusions from these figures. In the last
experiments with the onions, the college seeds
produced plants which, at the age of three weeks,
were fully twice as large as those from the pa¬
pers bought at the groceries. These are sold on
commission. They are sent around the country
in spring, and gathered up late in autumn, we
presume to be sent around in a similar manner
again and again, till they are all sold. He who
buys them in most cases throws away his money.
The firms whose names are previously given
doubtless sell many good seeds to those who ap¬
ply directly to their stores. To what extent
even these seeds are good we are not prepared to
say.”
The seeds hitherto named have been those
commonly confined to the garden. The farmer
in his field crops suffers as much or more from
poor and from dead seed; since in case of these
much labor and expense goes for nothing, and a
year’s use of land, and a year’s waste of manure
is the result.
Says Prof. Beal: “I purchased quite a variety
of seeds of clovers and grasses, in small quantity,
of one of the best seedsmen in New York city.
The seeds were tested in the greenhouse, at a
temperature of fifty-six to seventy degrees Fahren¬
heit. The seeds were placed between folds of
coarse bibulous paper, and kept moist. At two
different times two lots of seeds were counted
out, with fifty seeds in each lot.
nated as follows: — They germi-
Large Red Clover..........
Medium Red Clover....
Bokhara Clover............
Italian Clover................
Lucerne ..........................
White Clover.................
Alsik Clover.,................
41—43+46=177 or 88 per cent.
46439—4
35+28—1
48-43=176 or 88
15—18= 96 or 48
42+48—37—38=165 or 82 “
37—39—38—35=149 or 74 “
44 42—42—40=168 or 84 “
40+37+30+22=129 or 64 “
In experiment with college clover seed ninety,
ninety-two, ninety-eight per cent. germinated.
Thirty-five samples of clover sent in to the Pro¬
fessor, at his request, from as many persons,
show ninety-seven per cent, as the highest, sixty
per cent, as the lowest, with twelve samples above
ninety, and fifteen above eighty, per cent.
In crops like the clovers and grasses it is not to
be expected generally that all the seed will be
equally mature when mown ; and unless the im¬
mature seed that is threshed out with the rest
can be separated, there will remain some per cent,
of bad seed.
The grass seed purchased in New York did not
germinate as well as the clovers, and indeed ger¬
minated very poorly. For example: —
Hard Fescue...............
Rhode Island Best....
English Rye Grass ....
Sweet-scented Vernal.
Meadow Foxtail..........
Kentucky Blue Grass.
Red Top........................
Yellow Oat Grass.......
Orchard Grass............
Hungarian Grass........
Timothy........................
16 per cent.
2 “ «
4 “ «
8 “ “
2 “ «
0 “ “
23 « “
11 «

It would seem from this showing that it is un¬
safe to purchase kinds not in much demand as
the seed may be the left-over seed of seedsmen
and so too old for germination. It would seem
to be safe also to seed our lands pretty heavily
as the chances are in favor of much of the seed
we put on being already dead.
Surely, Prof. Beal is doing useful work, and we
hope he will keep on and that others will join him
in demanding of our seedsmen living seeds.