PURE SEEDS BILL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1214, 24 August 1911, Page 8

PURE SEEDS BILL.

GOVERNMENT JIEASUKE CRITICISED. . Vltilo it is a step in tho right direction, in some rcsnects it is not likely to accomplish all it aims at, says the Wainiraiui "Times," commenting-on the Pure Seeds Dill. . Noxious weed seeds art divided into three .schedules in regard to their degree- of objoctionableuess. Thus, the first scheilnlu contains ;,"oose grass, hair grass, barren fescuo fog and sow tliL-tle, and the third Califoriiinu thistle, dodder, sweet brier, blackberry aud 8.-.thurst burr, as the-most-I'angci'ous of all. The second sehedtdo contains the intermediate abominations. "Cleaned" seed may bo sold with an aggregate e-f not more than six per centum by numbers of tho weed seeds, named in the first awl second .schedules of four per centum by numbers of-the sne-ds named in tho second schedule. Anything over these percentages is to be regarded as "tmclemied," and must not lie sold for towing. Then, no seed can be sold that contains moro than two per centum of .gorsn or thorn, or ons per centum by numbers of thu seeds mentioned in schedule three.

Askwl to test these provisions of the Dill, Jtr. L. A. Abraham, of the firm of Bai-rainl and Abraham, produced some rather remarkable results. Mr. Abraham thinks that such weeds as .chnmmnniile, penny royal, ox-eye daisyiaud \yild turnip mictit rlie second to the third schedule owinsr to their snsnlally objectionable character, while ribKi'ni's, which is actually ordered in snnin mixture?,, should rather be in tho first than the srcond schedule, and also chick weed, which stcek will eat. It is when the percentage.-; allowed "by numbers" are reached that the anomalies appear. The seed that is m;>?t likely to contain os-eye daisy, is imported crested dog's tail—lib. ot (loirs tail seed contains an average of 1,127.000 grains. On the 1 per cent, basis allowed permission would be given to call dag's tail 'cleaned," which contained •1-5,080 seed grains of ox-eye daisy for every lb. of dog's tail, or 6,762,000 potential oxeye daisy plants to every loOlb. sack 'of dog's tail! Take the dreaded C'alifornian thistle. Alsike is the most likely of clovers. to contain it, and about 707,000 seeds of nlsike go to tho lb. Therefore, 1 per cent, "by numbers'' ot thistle would allow'7o7o potential Ciliforniuu thistles to every lb. cf aJsikff or 305,920 seeds of Califcrnio.n thistle to each 501b. b.ng cf alsike —enough to luin'a biggish farm: Dodder, the deadly parasitic enemy of the clover, is moit prevalent in red clover. lied clover averages 279,000 seed grains to the lb., so that on the I per cent, basis red clover scod could be sold wiiich contained 2790 irrains of dodder to Iho lb.. or half cwt. bags of "red clover," containing 10.210 potential doddei plants'. Finally, under tho first schedule li cer cent, oi foe is allowed. The most likely sesd to contain fog is cocksfoot, which averaees 579.500 seeds to the lb. 'This would allow 31.770 of seeds to the lb. of cocksfoot, or 3,477,000 seeds of Yorkshire fog lo tho 1001b. of cocksfoot seed!