4 GERMINATION OF PACKETED VEGETABLE SEEDS. 



Table I. — General summary of germination tests of vegetable seeds made in 1907, 1908, 



1909, 1910, and 1911. 



In these five years 18,571 packets of vegetable seeds were tested for 

 gerinination. The box seeds were put up by 60 firms and the mail- 

 order seeds were purchased from 20 firms. The average germination 

 of all the packets of box seeds was 60.5 per cent, and the average 

 germination of the mail-order seeds was 77.5 per cent. Of the 12,454 

 packets of box seeds, 658, or approximately 5 per cent, germinated 10 

 per cent or less, and 407, or approximately 3.5 per cent, failed to 

 germinate. Of the 6,117 packets of mail-order seeds, 74, or approxi- 

 mately 1.2 per cent, germinated 10 per cent or less, and 51, or approxi- 

 mately 0.85 per cent, failed to germinate. While the vitality of much 

 of this seed was low and in many instances the seed was worthless, 

 under the present custom in the seed trade the purchaser has no 

 information as to the quality of the seeds he is sowing, and when they 

 fail to grow it is impossible to tell whether the failure is due to the use 

 of poor seeds or to some unfavorable condition of soil or chmate. 



COMPARISON OF BOX AND MAIL-ORDER SEEDS, BY FIRMS. 



Figure 1 shows the average germination, by firms, of the packets of 

 box seeds put up by each of the 11 dealers whose seeds were purchased 

 in four successive years, together with the average gernunation, by 

 firms, of the mail-order seeds purchased in 191 1. It will be noted that 

 the average germination of the seeds from all but 3 of the mail-order 

 houses was higher than the highest average for any of the 11 firms 

 putting up box seeds. 



GERMINATION OF BOX SEEDS, BY FIRMS. 



Table II shows, by firms and years, the average germination of 

 the box seeds purchased in each of the four years, together with 

 the average germination for the whole period. 



[Cir. 101] 



