SEEDS WEEDS. 259 



has tabulated the results of his experiments, showing the usual data 

 of such experiments. 



Seed testing: Its importance, history, and some results, 0. R. 

 Ball (Ioioa Sta. Rpt. 1896-97, pp. 161-175).— The author gives a brief 

 review of the importance of seed testing, together with an historical 

 sketch of seed control in Europe and this country. He reports at some 

 length seed tests made at the station in 1897. The seeds were bought 

 in February from rive different seedsmen, and were supposedly of the 

 crop of 1896. Twenty varieties of seeds were purchased and tested in 

 the spring of the year and again in the fall, the seed being taken from 

 the same packages in each case. The vitality tests showed, for the 

 most part, that the seed were fairly good but considerably below the 

 recognized standard. Most of the tests showed a declining vitality, 

 but in the case of the cucurbit seeds in nearly every instance the 

 autumn tests gave a higher percentage of germination than those 

 obtained in the spring. 



Reports of the Danish Markfrdkontor (seed house) for 1896 and 1897 (Copen- 

 hagen, 1897, pp. 32; 189S,pp. 40).— The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth annual reports 

 of " Markfriikontoret,'' containing many papers on seeds and farm crops. 



Report of the seed-control station in Lund (Sweden) for 1897, B. Jonsson 

 (Malmo, 1898, pp.29). 



Influence of dividing mother beets on seed production, F. Lubanski (Bl. Zuck- 

 errubenbau., 5 (1898), Nos. 6, pp. 86, 87; 7, pp. 97, 98). 



On the methods of testing and estimating the value of beet seed, R. Hartleb 

 and A. Gillmeister (Jour. Landw., 46 (1898), No. 2, pp. 185-206). 



The germinative power of grain immersed in water, H. Coupix (Jour. Agr. 

 Prat., 62 (1898), No. 21, p. 752).— Results of experiments with various kinds of seeds 

 are reported. When immersed in running water for 48 hours 70 per cent of buck- 

 wheat, 100 of wheat, 89 of maize, and 96 of peas germinated. When immersed for 

 the same time in standing water the percentage of germiuation was 52, 97, 80, and 

 85, respectively. 



Concerning the artificial drying of seed of cereals with reference to their 

 germination, F. Nobbe (Mitt. Deut. Landw. Gesell.,12 (1897), No. 14, pp. 185,186). 



American clover seed in Austria-Hungary, C. B. Hurst (U. S. Consular Rpt8., 

 1898, No. 212, pp. 120-122).— A brief account is given of the attempt being made to 

 exclude American clover seed from Austria-Hungary. The basis of the exclusion 

 is the danger from the presence of dodder seed ( Cuscuta epithymum) . 



Analyses of seeds, A. K. Sabanine (Cohtrib. Agr. Lab. Univ. Moscow, 1896, pp. 47; 

 abs. in Selsk. Khoz. i Lyesov., 185(1897), Apr., p. 242).— Of the various conclusions 

 drawn by the author from his analyses of the seeds of different field plants grown in 

 Russia the most interesting is that the nitrogen content of grains of rye increases as 

 the place of growth proceeds from west to east or as the climate becomes more and 

 more continental — a phenomenon already observed by other investigators in regard 

 to wheat, barley, and millet. The author also noticed that the greater the amount 

 of nitrogen in the rye grains the smaller the amount of ash. — p. fireman. 



Seed breeding, W. W. Tracy ( Amer. Florist, 13 (1898), No. 520, pp. 1251, 1252). 



Note on the distribution of Pseudocommis vitis by the winds, M. Beleze 

 (Bui. Soc. Mycol. France, 14 (1898), No. l,p. 27). 



Investigations on the development of the seed of Utricularia, M. Merz (Flora, 

 84 (1897), Sup., pp. 69-87; abs. in Bot. Centbl., 74 (1898), No. 4-5, pp. 133, 134). 



Clover dodder, H. Kraut (Vent, Landw, Presse, 25 (1898) No. 26, p. " 

 6216— No. 3 5 



