354 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



A STUDY OF THE SEEDS OE TIMOTHY AND EED CLOVER 

 BEFORE AND AFTER SPROUTING. 



BY W. J. BEAL. 



While it is not absolutely necessary that pupils should be familiar 

 with the work planned in bulletins one and two of this series, before 

 undertaking the observations suggested in the present bulletin, it will be 

 much better if they have had the former work. They will need one or 

 more boxes of good earth and one or more of sand, a small quantity of 

 seeds of timothy and clover. As mentioned in other bulletins, so here, 

 there are two kinds of seeds to compare in study and in germination. The 

 pupils will compare several seeds of each kind with each other while dry, 

 and when soaked, and in both cases seeds of timothy with those of clover. 

 Some seeds should be left on top of wet soil or sand and covered by a 

 bowl or saucer, others should be covered with soil perhaps an eighth to a 

 quarter of an inch deep and not be allowed to dry. 



One or more trusty pupils may lay a piece of muslin on a dish of wet 

 sand on which may be placed a few seeds of clover and timothy. On the 

 first appearance of germination the seeds should be removed, well dried 

 (not heated), and then exposed to moisture until again sprouting begins 

 (if it does begin) and again dried as before, repeating the operation till 

 all seeds fail to start to grow. 



The children will doubtless soon discover that timothy is in many 

 respects much like wheat and that a clover seed is much like a common 

 bean. When kept for a time on wet cloth, the seeds of clover produce 

 stains of some interest. 



Here permit me to urge the teacher to encourage pupils to proceed and 

 make all the discoveries they can, singly and by consultation, before giving 

 them the following information which may well be called a key of answers 

 to the subject. To teach the mere facts enumerated below is not the object 

 of this bulletin, but to stimulate girls and boys to observe and arrive at 

 correct conclusions. 



