THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



97 



water, and spinkled over the ground before sowing, 

 gave very little increase. Arthur Young had long 

 before this time arrived at the same conclusion. 



When diluted with forty waters the sulphuric 

 acid browned the outside of the grain, but did not 

 prevent its growing well ; it ought, however, for 

 safety to be diluted with fifty or sixty times its 

 weight of water. Tinzmann also tried the sulphuric 

 and muriatic acids upon wheat, oat, and vetches, 

 and upon turnips and gi-ass seeds ; and in all 

 cases he found the steeped seeds, especially when 

 sulphuric acid was used, do better than the un- 

 steeped. It was on soils which had been long in 

 good cultivation that the effect of these acid steeps 

 was found by the German farmer to be most ob- 

 servable. 



Haifa century elapsed from the trials of Davy, and 

 we find another chemical philosopher in 1857 cau- 

 tiously repeating and extending these important 

 experiments. "The idea," well observes Professor 

 Voelcker {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. xix., p. 164), 

 "of dressing seed with various fertilizing matters is 

 not a new one. Several attempts •of applying 

 manure to the seed instead of to the land have been 

 made, and the most preposterous advantages re- 

 sulting from seed-manuring held out by certain 

 men, whose interest it was to sell comparatively 

 cheap fertilizing matters at an enormous profit. 

 These attempts, as might have been expected, have 

 proved complete failures. I allude to these 

 attempts of manuring and steeping the seeds, be- 

 cause I do not wish to be suspected of entertaining 

 for a moment the idea that the system of seed- 

 manuring is based on rational principles. My sole 

 object in engaging in the subjoined experiments 

 was to ascertain if, by any chemical means, the 

 germination of the turnip-seed could be promoted, 

 and to collect additional evidence respecting the 

 effect of ammoniacal manures on the germination 

 of seeds. 



"With this object in view, I made the following 

 experiments with new Norfolk bell-turnip-seed. 



No. 



1. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in dis- 

 tilled water, containing 2 per cent, of sul- 

 phuric acid. 



2. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in dis- 

 tilled water, containing 1 per cent, of sul- 

 phuric acid. 



3. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in distilled 

 water, containing 5 per cent, of sulphuric 

 acid. 



4. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in distilled 

 water, containing 2 per cent, of sulphate of 

 ammonia. 



5. 100 seeds v/ere soaked for 20 hours in distilled 

 water, containing 5 per cent, of sulphate of 

 ammonia. 



6. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in 3 oz, of 



distilled water and 4 oz. bone-ash dissolved in 

 sulphuric acid. 



7. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in 3 oz. of 

 distilled water and 1 oz. of bone-ash, dissolved 

 in sulphuric acid. 



8. 100 seeds were soaked for 20 hours in 3 oz. of 

 distilled water and \ oz. of Peruvian guano. 



The seed prepared in this way was sown on the 

 15th of May, 1857, in garden-mould in flowerpots. 

 On the same day were sown also in flowerpots — 



9. 100 seeds with ^ oz. of superphosphate, made 

 by dissolving fine bone-dust in 50 per cent, of 

 brown acid. 



10. 100 seeds with 2 oz. of bone-ash, dissolved in 

 acid. 



11. 100 seeds with 1 oz. of bone-ash, dissolved in 

 sulphuric acid. 



12. 100 seeds with h, oz. of Peruvian guano. 



13. 100 seeds with i oz. of Peruvian guano, mixed 

 with 1 oz. of soluble sihca rock, finely 

 powdered. 



14. 100 seeds with i oz. of sulphate of ammonia, 

 mixed with i oz. of powdered soluble sihca 

 rock. 



15. 100 seeds, sown with 120 grs. of sulphate of 

 ammonia and \ oz. of powdered soluble silica 

 rock. 



16. 100 seeds with J oz. of Peruvian guano. 



17. 100 seeds without anything. 



18. 100 seeds without anything. 



"The flowerpots containing these 18 experiments 

 were regularly watered every day. The soil was 

 constantly kept in a moderately moist condition, 

 and the result observed from time to time." 



The general conclusions arrived at from the re- 

 sult of these trials are thus added in the Professor's 

 report— 



" 1. That the seed employed in the experiments 

 was of good quality, 94 in one trial and 90 in a 

 second, out of 100, having germinated. 



" 2. That turnip-seed unprepared and merely 

 moistened occasionally, germinated more rapidly 

 than the seed in all the other experiments. 



" 3. That very dilute sulphuric acid killed the 

 seed. 



" 4. That a dilute solution of sulphate of ammonia 

 killed many seeds, and retarded greatly the germi- 

 nation of those that survived. Thus two-thirds of 

 the number of turnip-seeds were killed, and only 

 one-third germinated. It will also be seen that 

 sulphate of ammonia sown in considerable quantity 

 with the seed also killed it, whilst in more mode- 

 rate doses it greatly retarded the germination of 

 the surviving seeds. 



" 5. That Peruvian guano, even in small quanti- 

 ties, had the same effect as sulphate of ammonia : 

 hence the danger of drilling in turnip-seed or car- 

 rots with guano, even when previousjly mixed with 

 ashes, 



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