OCR Text |
Show URGES PLANTING OF CLEAN SEED By JOHN E. BLAZZARD District Agricultural Inspector At this season of the year the farmer is preparing his seed bed for the various crops, and of course, contemplates the purchase of seed for the spring planting. Pew of our farmers realize the necessity ne-cessity of clean and viable seed. Purchasing is done with little thought to the future crop except as to yield. No consideration is given to that crop which usually follows the one we harvest for consumption or sale the weed crop. The average seed sold on the market today, no matter how good it looks, is ordinarily overcharged with the seed of many bad weeds, and often with the seed of one or several of our very bad perennial weeds such as wKItetop, Canada thistle, and wild morning-glory. Such seed planted in our soil is sure to produce an everlasting harvest har-vest of hard work. To use the words of the state seed analyst Most farmers buy seed on the basis of school-day grades, 70 per cent being fair, 80 per cent good, 90 per cent excellent, ex-cellent, while 98 per cent must be some seed. A sample of alfalfa seed selected at random from the files of the seed analyst, and bearing bear-ing a tag showing 98 per cent purity, showed the following analysis: an-alysis: 72 whitetop, 504 large dodder, dod-der, 4500 salt bush, 4375 gum weed, 1125 black nightshade, 828 poverty weed, 450 prickly lettuce, 144 barnyard barn-yard grass, and 72 pigweed per i pound of weight. This lot of seed if planted by the farmer, at the rate of 20 pounds per acre, would mean 240,000 weeds per acre from 98 per cent pure seed, and some of them of the very worst kind to combat. Farmers are urged in making seed purchases to look for the analysis an-alysis tag and read what the seed contains. See for yourself if noxious nox-ious weed seeds are contained. See if the purity is high. See what the germination of the seed may be. Adopt the habit of looking for the tag. If it is not attached to the bag, buy seed elswhere. Seed without with-out an analysis tag is sold illegally. To adopt the words of some merchandising mer-chandising concerns buy wisely. |