Vol. XI. No. 265. 



THE AQRICULTUKAL NEWS 



197 



THE GERMAN AGRICULTURAL INSTI- THE GERMINATION OP OLD SEEDS. 



TUTE AT AMANI. 



Tleference has been made frequently in the Agricultural 

 Xcirx to the Imperial Biological Agricultural Institute at 

 Amani, German East Africa, and it will be of interest to 

 present further details of this Institute abstracted from an 

 account made for the Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant Diseases for April 1912 



The establishment of the Institute dates from 1902, 

 and its objects include: research in connexion with the 

 raising of cultivated tropical plants, and on their pests and 

 diseases, with means of 

 prevention and cure; soi 

 analysis and analysis of 

 raw materials and other 

 products of interest; 

 manurial experiments; 

 and lastly the study of 

 the flora and fauna o 

 German East Africa. 



Amani was chosen as 

 the site for the work 

 because of its favourable 

 conditions of soil and 

 climate. The land that 

 is used has an area of 

 741 acres, and extends 

 from a height of 1,300 

 to 3,575 feet, above 

 sea-level. This inclus- 

 ion of areas at different 

 altitudes is of particular 

 utility in that it enables 

 experiments to be made 

 with sub-tropical, as well 

 as tropical, plants. The 

 Amani Experiment Sta- 

 tion is completed liy 

 a station at M o m b o 

 where there is a large 

 area of land in the plain. 

 The site of the principal 

 buildings and of the 

 laboratories is at nearly 

 3,000 feet above the sea. 

 The clearing of forests 

 has amounted already to 

 about 250 acres, and 

 about 30 miles of roads 

 have been made. 



The abstract from 

 which these details are 

 taken proceeds to give 

 an account of the past 

 activities of the Insti- 

 tute, which as may be well understood have been many and 

 varied. The propaganda of the station is carried on at present 

 by the issue at Dar-es-Salani, of a journal called Der PAanzer. 

 A more important publication .'^ent out by the institute is 

 constituted by the Berichte ilber Land- und Forstwirtscluift 

 fiir Deutsch Ost-Afriha. 



Among the useful features of the station, that serve as 

 an annex to it, is a building intended for the accommodation 

 of visitors; these are mostly European settlers in the colony, 

 including students and farmers and employees of the neigh- 

 bouring English and Italian colonies. 



Fi< 



The Bulletin Agricole of ilauritius for March 1912 contains 

 an interesting note which commences by drawing attention 

 to the legends that exist concerning the extreme longevity of 

 seeds, particularly those regarding the germination of grains 

 of "heat found in sarcophagi in I'.gypt— a matter which has 

 been entirely discredited. 



The note proceeds to state that, nevertheless, Professor 

 Becquerel in Paris, and Professor Ewart in Melbourne, have 

 instituted experiments which demonstrate that seeds do 

 actually possess great vitality. They have tiiken from 



museums old seeds that 

 are known authentically 

 to have been in the 

 lllU.'^eums for at least 

 twenty-five years, and have 

 found that 10 per cent. 

 of these were capable of 

 sprouting. The oldest 

 among the seeds were 

 those of Cytisus biflorus 

 (eighty-four years), Cassia 

 Ijirapsularis (eighty- seven 

 years), and//o''ea linearis 

 (105 years). In each of 

 these cases, germination 

 was obtained with two 

 or three seeds out of ten. 

 The two observers have 

 remarked that the species 

 of plants in which the 

 .seeds present the largest 

 vitality belong generally 

 to the pod-bearing plants, 

 nr Leguminosae. 



Professor Becquerel has 

 placed a certain number 

 of seeds in round glass 

 vessels in which the most 

 perfect vacuum obtainable 

 has been produced; and 

 these vessels, after Ihaving 

 been sealed, have been 

 deposited in a safe place 

 where they will be found 

 by future generations and 

 employed for testing the 

 vitality of the seeds con- 

 tained in them. 



In regard to the ger- 

 mination of seeds that 

 have been kept for only 

 a few weeks, the follow- 

 ing account of work con- 

 ducted in Italy, taken 

 fiom the Experiment Staliun Record, Vol. XXII, p. 326, is 

 of interest: 'At temperatures ranging from 9° to 17° C, 

 with a daily temperature at 3 p.m. of 12° to 16°., 18 per 

 cent, of maize, 51 of barley, 70 of millet, 22 of beans, and 

 23 of chick peas germinated in three weeks when the seed 

 was fresh, while of the old seed only 7 per cent, of maize, 5 of 

 barley, and 12 of millet germinated. Where the temperature 

 was increased to 20 to 24, the fresh seed gave the following 

 germinations: 86 per cent, of millet, 96 of maize, 100 of 

 barley and beans, and 97 of chick peas, while the old seed 

 did not show any considerable increase.' 



3. Pl.\n't ok Coco-de Mek, or Double Cuco-nut, at the 

 DoMisiiA BoT.\Nic Gardes. 



