I02 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



vantages of the Geneva Tester over the plate of sand where the mois- 

 ture may need renewing each day, or even oftener. The folds are easily 

 opened w-hen it is necessary to inspect the kernels to count the number 

 v/hich have germinated. Some care is necessary in lifting the tester, 

 that the groups of kernels be not jarred from their places. 



Testing tvith Box and Blotters. — Another plan is to use a small box, 

 Avith layers of moistened blotting paper inside. This device consists first 

 of a small box, say a foot long, six inches wide, and five inches deep. 

 The bottom of the box should be made water-tight ; if necessary, the 

 cracks may be stopped with white lead or strips of cloth or asbestos. 

 The kernels of corn are kept moist by putting water into the box to a 

 depth of one-half inch more or less. Something must be laid in the 

 box to hold the first blotter up out of the water. Small sticks laid cross- 

 wise of the box will answer this purpose. 



The blotting papers should be moistened as they are placed in the 

 box. When the first blotter is laid in, either small sticks or wire cloth 

 are put down on top of it to mark the spaces for the separate groups of 

 kernels. These spaces must correspond to the spaces in the frame where 

 the ears of com are placed. After one layer of blotting paper is covered 

 with the kernels, another similar layer may be put down on top of the 

 first, and so on until the box is filled, or until the desired amount of 

 corn has been put in. 



Like the plate and sand method and the wooden box Geneva Tester, 

 this device is easy to use on the ordinary farm because it does not neces- 

 sitate the buying of any expensive apparatus or material. If small sticks 

 are substituted for the wire gauze, it will only be necessary to purchase 

 the pieces of blotting paper, which can be secured at a merely nominal 

 cost of almost any printer or stationer. Of course the wooden box will 

 sometimes warp and begin to leak, making it somewhat difficult to keep 

 the blotters from becoming too dry. Where it is desired to use a tester 

 for any large amount of work, it is usually best to have the box made 

 of copper. - 



We have gone into the matter of explaining the devices for testing 

 seed com at some length from the practical standpoint, in the hope that 

 the greatest number of corn growers will arrange to test seed by one of 

 the methods. The method of doing the work is not of such paramount 

 importance as that it be done, and done thoroughly. 



In advocating the testing, when necessary, of every ear of com in- 

 tended for seed, we have been met with the objection that "it takes too 

 much time." We have therefore made some careful computations along 

 this line. In Table i we have recorded the time in minutes used in 



