Germination of Seed as Affected by Sulfuric Acid Treatment 299 



is used the work should be done over a porcelain or other acid-resistant 

 sink, and the waste acid washed away with water.) Wash for five minutes 

 in running water or until the seed is entirely free from acid. The seed 

 may be planted immediately or it may be allowed to dry before planting, 

 the former process being preferable for small lots of seed. 



red clover seed 



The preliminary work on the treatment of clover seed was conducted 

 by treating it with acid for only 10 minutes. This treatment, as is shown 

 later, did not give so good results as a longer treatment would have 

 given. 



The earlier work was on the treatment of some seed obtained from 

 the Illinois Experiment Station. This seed was from some of the different 

 strains which that station was breeding. Part of the seed from each 

 sample had been sown in the field and some of it had given very poor 

 germination. This seed was from individual heads from different plants, 

 and shows the great variation relative to germination that exists in dif- 

 ferent plants. The results of the field trials with these lines are shown 



in Table 2. 



TABLE 2. Red Clover Seed 



Tests of germination in field, between blotters, and in sand pots, untreated and treated 

 with concentrated sulfuric acid (sp. gr. 1.84) for 10 minutes 



Lot no. 



lOI 



127 



157 



162 



172 



182 



184 



189 



192 



197 



Average per cent 



Per cent germination 



In field 



Untreated 



23 

 90 



27 

 20 

 27 



13 

 10 

 20 



17 

 30 



27.7 



Between blotters 



Untreated 



16 



48 



14 

 10 

 8 

 16 

 12 

 22 

 26 

 22 



19.4 



Treated 



76 

 72 

 80 

 84 

 26 

 88 

 92 

 50 

 46 



74 



68.8 



In sand pots 



Untreated 



28 



63 

 12 



4 

 13 

 20 



3 

 32 



29 



18 



Treated 



68 

 69 

 68 

 70 



23 

 70 



94 

 67 

 47 

 85 



22.2 



66.1 



This table shows that seed No. 127 gave a very good germination of 

 90 per cent in the field test, while No. 184 gave only 10 per cent. Thus 

 we see that seed from some plants gives a very high percentage of germi- 

 nation, while that from others has a very small amount of seed that 



