DELUSIVE SEED BARGAINS

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1483, 4 July 1912, Page 8

DELUSIVE SEED BARGAINS

SOMi; STWKLXG EXAMPLES.

Inferring to Hie necessity for repressin:-' ii,o desire on the part of hie farmer seed "bargains," Mr. AH. Cockayne, Government Biologist, says it can be saie- -- be (Mien as an axiom that there are no "bargains" in the seed trade. Some actual examples of so-called cheap seed, taken from sample i;;.ut)iied during the past veer are given in t'.ie Department of' Agriculture's ■ '■Journal." Thc.-e are : r Whito Clover.—The price for a certain line of white clover was Is. Id. pw V°™ i] ; Good white clover could be purchased nt tha time at Is. fid- The sample gave a puritv of fit per cent, and a germination of 3.l'per cent., or a real value of 21 per etui—i.e.. in lulilb. of the sample only 211b. consisted-of pure white clover capable of growing. Thus over .'is. was the price nctuallv paid for lib, of pure white clover seed. The 3-t per cent, of impurities- consisted of twenty-three differ-' cut kinds of weed seeds present to the number of 230,000 individual seeds to each pound. Another sample of white clover that was offered below the current market price contained thirty-six different kinds of weed hvqO^.

. l\ed Clover.—A line of red clover offered at a very cheap price contained 10 per cent, of 'impurities, consisting of sixteen different weed seeds. Amongst these was clover dodder at the rale of over 8000 seeds pfr pound. Another «miile.contained :,nve'r 20 ner cent, of impurities, consisting of twenty-three kinds of plants other thin re:', clover.

Timothy.—The following is an analysis of a line of New Zealand timothy that was offered for safe: The purity was f11.3 per cent., and lib. of the seed contained the. followiwr seeds other than tiniothv: P.at'wort, 41,371 seeds: Yorkshire fug, o.UI •■rods: mouse-eared chickweed. !)!if!fi -cods; pea nritonsis. 211G seeds: decks. I">H ■.reds; se>v-thistl», 15.1 seeds; Californian thistle, ISI seeds; total, (,5,120 seeds.

'.I'lie above examples serve to demonstrate the contention that cheap seed means bad seed, and the Use cf bad seed is the mo-.i expensive poiiey that anv farmer can adopt.