The Seeds in Your Drill Box

E. R. CLARK AND C. R. PORTER.

A FARMER in Kentucky bought 200 pounds of seed of Korean lespedeza at a farm auction. The seed bore no label, and he knew nothing about its ability to germinate, its purity, content of weed seeds, and crop mixture. He paid 8.7 cents a pound for it when the market price for certified seed was more than twice as much. He thought he had a bargain.

Before he planted it, he had it tested. The report of tests in a laboratory at the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station showed: Pure seed, 76.85 percent; germination, 26 percent; inert matter, 9.46 percent; weed seeds, 10.96 percent; and other crop seeds, 2.73.

The weed seeds consisted of 39 buck-horn and 543 dodder per ounce, both of which are classified as noxious weeds in Kentucky. The other weeds were common, bracted, and Virginia plantain, beggarstick, paspalum, witch-grass, crabgrass, buttonweed, frost-flower, bristlegrass, spiny sida, and heal-all.

By multiplying the percentage of pure seed by the percentage of germination and the number of pounds of seed the farmer bought, we know that he got only 4o pounds of pure live seed. Instead of paying 8.7 cents, the farmer paid 43 cents a pound for the seed that would germinate and grow.

When he got the report on what he thought had been bargain seed, he decided not to sow it but buy good seed instead. He bought 200 pounds of certified Rowan Korean lespedeza at 18 cents a pound. The labels on the bag showed the percentage of pure seed to be 99.95; germination, 94 percent; inert matter, 0.03 percent; weed seeds, 0.02 percent (no noxious weeds); and no other crop seeds.

By using these figures to convert the purchase of 200 pounds of certified Rowan to a basis of pure live seed, we find the farmer paid 19.4 cents a pound: The good seed of an adapted variety cost him only 45 percent as much as his bargain seed.

But that is not the whole story.

Suppose the farmer had not sent the seed to the State seed laboratory but had planted it immediately. What would have been the loss in yield and quality of hay or pasture? What would have been the cost and trouble of cleaning up the weeds if he had sown his bargain seed?

Many farmers penalize themselves by planting poor-quality, weed-infested seeds a fact that is borne out by the results from surveys of seed in drill boxes the seeds that are about to be planted.

FOR DRILL-BOX surveys, samples are taken on farms selected at random in the sections to be surveyed. The seed is sampled in the fields where the planters are working whenever it is feasible to do so. If wet weather hinders the planting, samples may be drawn from bags or bins after the seed has been prepared for planting. Seed inspectors, county agents, and students of agriculture conduct the surveys.

They get information as to the history and handling of the seed, the name of the variety, and the source. If the survey covers certified and non-certified, cleaned and uncleaned, or treated and untreated seeds, the farmer is asked about those details.

Drill-box surveys have been made in more than 20 States and Canadian Provinces since 1951. They indicate by and large that the quality of seed in the drill box has not kept up with the great strides that have been made in developing better seed-cleaning machinery and our knowledge of the processing of seed. Seeds of weeds and other crops and varieties, some readily separable by modern machinery, too often are found in the farmers' drill boxes. Failure to prepare this seed properly before planting is a common cause of planting crop losses.

DRILL-BOX SURVEYS were made in Canada in 1913, when 263 samples of small grains were collected from farmers' drill boxes in Alberta. A survey conducted later by the late W. H. Wright, Chief of the Seed Testing Section of the Canada Department of Agriculture, disclosed that more than 40 percent of the seed sown was inferior to the minimum quality required for grade under the Seed Act.

In Minnesota in 1923, 653 samples were taken from farmers' grain drill boxes. The amounts of foreign material, including other crop seeds, weed seeds, and inert matter, averaged 3.45 to 5.77.

The Agricultural Extension Service in North Dakota made a survey of hard red spring wheat and durum planted in 1940; 34 percent of the spring wheat and 75 percent of the durum lots were considered to be unsatisfactory because of weed seeds and admixtures.

Early and recent surveys have shown that much of the seed grain is homegrown. Wheat, oats, and barley fields usually are planted with seed produced on the same farm or obtained from neighbors. Seeds of legumes and grasses generally come from commercial channels.

A survey in New York indicated that 75.8 percent of the wheat seed had been grown on the same farm and 15.8 percent had been purchased from neighbors.

Surveys in Nebraska showed 77.8 percent of the wheat and 70.8 percent of the oats were homegrown. Only 3.7 percent of both kinds had been purchased from dealers.

Wheat farmers in Virginia bought 9.9 percent of the seed from dealers, but 81.8 percent had been grown on the farm where it was being planted. A different trend was found in Indiana in a survey in 1957. Only 64.5 percent of the oats had been grown by the planter, 10.9 percent had been purchased from other farmers, and 14.3 percent was bought from dealers. The demand for the new variety, Clintland, which had been released by the Purdue Agricultural Experiment Station only a few years previously, may have brought this change of practice. Seed of Clintland was available only from certified seed growers and dealers. The variety-conscious farmers discarded their own seed and purchased Clint-land.

That improved varieties are in demand throughout the country is indicated by the surveys in every region.

Workers at Clemson Agricultural College in South Carolina found that 82.5 percent of the farmers used recommended varieties of wheat, 66.6 percent grew recommended varieties of barley, 74.5 percent grew approved varieties of rye, and 78.6 percent grew standard varieties of oats. In South Carolina, as in Indiana, the percentage of farmers who obtained seed grain from dealers-13.8 percent was higher than indicated by surveys in other States.

Eighty percent of farms covered by the surveys in Nebraska were planted with known varieties of wheat and oats. Eighty-three percent of the farms surveyed in New York grew either Garry or Rodney oats.

TESTING SEED for purity and germination has been recommended by agricultural leaders for a long time, but many farmers still plant seed grain without testing it.

In North Dakota, 54 percent of the seed grain was not tested for germination.

In Indiana, 37 percent was not tested.

In Nebraska, 44 percent of the farmers had not tested their seed grain.

In South Carolina and Virginia, the percentages planted without testing were 85 percent and 83 percent, respectively.

In Michigan, 14 percent of the samples taken from drill boxes tested less than 80 percent in germination.

On the other hand, 81 samples of seed corn taken in a survey at planting time in Nebraska were planted in check plots and compared for stand, yield, and earliness of maturity. Sixty-two samples, which produced yields of 100 bushels or more to the acre, germinated 96 percent or more in standard laboratory tests.