F. KiDD AND C. West 



165 



seeds owing to the transference of food-material from the hauhii allow- 

 ing them to advance a stage in maturity? Looking at the figures for 

 yield per plant given in Table VI no important difference can be 

 detected; this is not surprising in view of the fact that practically no 

 difference is observable in yield per plant between plants from fully 

 ripe and those from the most immature seeds. 



Table VII. 



I. Seeds, which were not after-ripened. 



II. Seeds, which were dried on the haulm. 



With regard to germination, on the other hand, the results obtained 

 by Lucanus (Table VIII) certainly show that the immature seeds dried 

 off in organic connection with the haulm retain their capacity for ger- 

 mination far better than those separated from the parent-plant before 

 drying, except, of course, in the case of the fully ripe seeds^. 



Turning to the more recent investigations planned to determine 

 whether the use of somewhat immature seed is to be recommended as 

 an agricultural practice, we find that from the available evidence no 

 good case can be made out in its favour. 



Georgeson, Burtis, and Shelton(iO) compared the yield from ripe 

 wheat seed with that from seed harvested in the milk stage and found 

 that the immature seed yielded 19-75 bushels of grain and 0-80 ton of 

 straw per acre as compared with 22 bushels of grain and 1-04 tons of 

 straw per acre produced from the mature seed. With oats, however, 

 the same investigators (9) found that seeds harvested in the dough stage 

 gave the best results, their figures being as follows (Table IX) : 



^ Both Lucanus (16) and Nowachi (22) worked out elaborately the differences in 

 weight and the detailed changes in contents which occur during the process of drying-oii 

 in seeds separated from the haulm immediately after harvesting as compared with those 

 which take place in seeds allowed to dr^^ off attached to the parent-plant. 



