740 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



Garvei' (E. S. R., 27, p. 235), and states that "a similar macliine was made in 

 England, at my suggestion, with the result that clover seeds may be purchased 

 with a guarantied germination of 98 or 100 per cent. This gain was clearly 

 established by these experiments. . . ." 



A brief account is given of a transfer of live wheat embryos to dead seed 

 kernels of various colors. The results " clearly show that living embryos trans- 

 ferred to the food store of dead seeds utilize it freely, and that the store of food 

 retains all its properties for many years after the seed is dead." 



Samples of 43 kinds of farm seeds were secured from the harvest of 1895 and 

 stored during the succeeding 16 years in paper bags in close cabinet drawers. 

 Germination tests indicated that the germinating power of barley and wheat 

 was but little affected during the first 5 years, but decreased with increasing 

 rapidity from that time until the tenth year, when no live seeds remained. Oats 

 showed no serious loss of vitality until after the ninth year. Five years later 

 white oats showed no living seeds, but black oats germinated for 15 years. 

 The retention of vitality by oats is attributed to the adherence of the glumes. 



In case of grasses the "death of all the samples occurred between the eighth 

 and thirteenth years." Three main types appeared, one represented by timothy 

 and tall oat grass, in which vitality was well maintained for 4 years and 

 dropped rapidly thereafter ; a second, of which hard fescue and sheep fescue 

 were most characteristic, in which the germination tests showed a rapid drop to 

 a point below 10 per cent, at which they remained practically stationary for a 

 year or so before vitality disappearing entirely; the third crop is typified by 

 Italian rye grass and less perfectly by meadow fescue, and shows a fairly 

 steady Joss of vitality from first to last. 



The 3 true clovers (red, white, and alsike) showed a slight loss of vitality 

 during the first 3 or 4 years, a rapid loss of vitality for about 4 years more, 

 and finally the gradual loss of the last 10 per cent during the next 3 or 4 years. 

 Trefoil lost vitality very steadily from first to last. Sainfoin lost almost as 

 steadily. Alfalfa decreased rapidly at first then changed little between the 

 fifth and ninth years after which it decreased quite regularly, being practically 

 dead at the end of the fourteenth year. 



Of the cruciferous seeds tested, 5 sorts were entirely dead at the end of the 

 thirteenth year, and 4, kale, white turnip, and purple and green top swedes 

 showed very rapid decreases in vitality during the tenth year. The decrease in 

 case of rape and the yellow turnip w-as decidedly slower but began somewhat 

 earlier. Rape was entirely dead during the eleventh season. Carrots and yar- 

 row seed lost their vitality at a rather uniform rate and entirely during the 

 tenth and eleventh seasons, respectively. Tables and curves show in detail the 

 results of the germination tests from which these conclusions are drawn, and 

 tables state the results of other tests dealing with the rapidity of germination 

 of seed of t^e same group of plants. 



HORTICULTURE. 



[Report on investigations in plant heredity and plant shading], B. D. 

 Halsted et al. (New Jersey Stas. Rpt. 1910, pp. 221-272, 211-282, 292-295, pis. 

 29, figs. 2). — In continuation of previous investigations (E. S. R., 25, p. 444) 

 inheritance in plants was studied in the following truck crops: Beans, corn, egg- 

 plants, okra, peas, peppers, squashes, and tomatoes. In order to lay a founda- 

 tion for the determination of rules of inheritance that may be of general appli- 

 cation special emphasis has been laid upon the behavior of tomato crosses in 

 their first generation. The types selected have been bred reciprocally with 

 each other and the plants extensively studied from seedling to full maturity. 



