HOW TO TEST SEED.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1977, 4 March 1893, Page 3

HOW TO TEST SEED.

Tho following interesting details on the sub]Vcb"*)f testing seeds, copied from an cxchangp, are worthy of perusal by farmers, gardeners, and settlers generally :— lt U of the utmost importance to everyone to know How to bay seeds. When you want new seed peas put one from the stock into your mouth and bite it. If it. is very hard it is more than one year old. If the teeth enter it with moderate case, it is now seed New carrot seed always has a green shade on it. Old ' seed loses this, and is cf a dead pale brown, l and loss fragrant. New parsnip seed has a j shade of green, which it \o r e* t if more than ouo year old. Onion seed is more difficult I to prove than most other seeds, but if you take a single seed at a time and carefully bite it you will find that the old seed has a tough, dry skin, with a very white and barsh kernel, while new seed has a most tender, mouth skin, and the kernel possesses a greater degree of moisture, and is somewhat oily. Tho seed may be cut with a penknife, instead of bitten. Onion seed that has no vitality at all has no kernel, or one perfectly dry. Test this by pressing the seed on a piece of white writing paper. If it leaves no moisture on the piper it is (if no u»c, and his been tampered with, au-1 has lost its vitality by age. New cabbage and brocc »li seed possess a pale green shade in the kernel whrn pressed cut or cut, and a tinge of green in the brown skin also. Bat old 3ecd loses this in proportion to its age, becoming of a dull, nark brown Udbbage, broccoli, kales, etc., -vi ill retain thrir vitality longer than any other seed, and will grow when three years old, or even six yoars ffhen well kept. Beet seed has a faint tinge of pale green if new, but i3a dull brown if old, and its vitality is very doubtful if old. New cltry teod \v\a a faint tin^e of greei, and is *cry aromatic, but it loses the green and becomes less fragrant if more than one year old, and is doubtful. Lettuce seed is of a bright silvery grey if now, nnd the kernel has a grcou tinge with it, both of wh ; oh it partially loses with ago. Lettuce seed will grow very well two years old, but above that age it is doubtful. The black-ieedod varieties can only be tested by tho colour of tho kernel, which is the •wine as iv the wnite-aecdeJ.