Hi Big brother's helper here. link to the Federal Seed act or 7 C.F.R. PART 201—FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/… http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/seed/seed_pub.htm The date does help identify those seeds that have lower germination rates as time passes. William Aley aley_wd@mac.com On Mar 28, 2008, at 11:36 PM, Kenneth Hixson wrote: > Dear Members >> I suspect the seed companies wanted us to buy new supplies each >> year and >> inferred, by dating their packets with a particular year, that >> fresh was >> needed for germination. > > There are federal laws requiring that seed > packages be marked with the year packaged, the > germinating percentage--within six months, I believe > --and country of origin. Supposedly this prevents > seed companies from selling "bad" seed. > Another well intentioned regulation from > "Big Brother". How well the law is enforced is > another matter. > > Ken > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/