New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 365 
Schindler concludes from his investigations that the capacity 
of pees for swelling is in general the greater the less their spe- 
cific gravity. According to the writer’s observation, this general 
principle appears to apply to cruciferous seeds, though no sys- 
tematic observations have been made. But in the case of some, 
though not all, peas of abnormally low specific gravity, the prin- 
ciple does not apply at all. Tor instance in one series of obser- 
vations one pea having a specific gravity of 1.02 changed only 
to 1.01 in twenty-four hours, another seed of specific gravity 
1.08 changed to only 1.07, and a third seed of specific gravity 
1.09 changed only to 1.05. In the same period of twenty-four 
hours normal, germinable seeds of specific gravity 1.24 to 1.31 
changed variously from 1.09 to 1.02. Doubtless the reason for 
the very slight change in specific gravity of the non-viable seeds 
is the well known physiological fact that dead seeds cannot swell. 
Incidentally it was brought out in the course of these observa- 
tions that seeds of abnormally low specific gravity often contain 
an exceptionally high content of moisture when in the air-dry 
condition; for instance the seed referred to above of specific 
gravity 1.02 contained twenty-two per ct. of moisture and the 
seed of specific gravity 1.09 contained 18.6 per ct. Viable seeds 
in the same lot contained generally from 11 to 13 per ct. But 
all peas of abnormally low specific gravity do not contain an 
excessive amount of moisture, as is shown by the fact that a pea 
of specific gravity 1.08 contained only 13 per ct. 
RELATION BETWEEN SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SEED AND 
VIGOR. OF RESULTING PLANTS. 
The writer has made but few culture tests to determine whether 
there is a correlation between the specific gravity of the seed 
and the vigor and productiveness of the resulting plant, and 
none of these tests are satisfactory. They were made in the 
season of 1903, when the exceptional period of drouth early in 
the season put the crops back; and later disease or other untoward 
circumstances interfered, lessening confidence in the compara- 
bility of the results obtained. Some of these results are never- 
the less believed to be sufficiently reliable to be worthy of being 
placed on record. 
