TESTING GRASS SEED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 19, 15 October 1937, Page 23 (Supplement)

TESTING GRASS SEED

'JIHE testing of seeds and issuing of certificates that are recognised intornationally is one of the finest services provided by the Department Agriculture. All testing is done according to international rulos. These have been drafted and approvod by representatives of the many nations which either export or import seeds, or, as is generally the case, do both. This. arrangement is a most helpful one to trade. The station is coudueted by the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture. In addition to commercial testing, ou behalf of farmers and merchants, the .station testa the large quantities of grass 6eeds purchased by the various State departments. The Government, sowing between twentyflve thousand and thirty thousaud acres of pasture a year, is quite the largest individual seed purchaser in the Dominion. The method of testing is as follows: A small sample of seed is germinat-

ed (this takes about ten days). Fifty, of these tiny seedlings are placed in 8 tube about 4in. long and Jin. thici, and pushed hard into the end of it. A! cliemical is then poured in, in small quantity, to cover tlie crushed seedlings. A piece of whito iilter paper i# placed in the test tube aud the top is sealed with a rubber cork. The tuha is then put into a warm container fiof forty-eight hours. The cliemical within the tuBe act# upon the clover seedlings therein and forms a gas. This gas stains the filter paper. The deeper the stain, the better the clover. A deep orange stain represents the greatest degree of permanency. Ferennial ryegrass is tested, "by ex» amination of - germinated seed, under ultra-violet rays. The seed certified under this test is known as "commerciaL" The gaining popularity of thi# seed has caused tlie area of ryegrass submittod for field inspection to drop by half.