148 GERMINATION OF INDIAN BARLEY 
The reason is obvious. The whole subject of the germinating value of the 
seed usually sown by cultivators for their crops is worth further study. 
A sample of barley was taken in June before the rains set in, and from 
this a number of small cotton bags were lightly filled with some 1,000 kernels 
each. Some of these bags were stored in a closed large dessicator, beneath the 
perforated zinc floor of which was about a pound of anhydrous calcium 
chloride. By this means the influence of the weather was removed and the seed 
kept until its regular germinating season. These bags of grain simply served 
as a control. They were used during barley-sowing season when a check 
experiment was deemed necessary. The germination of our barley was found 
to be uniformly high, samples from this dessicator often showing 99 per cent. 
and never below 96 percent. germination. Others of these bags of grain 
were exposed for various intervals of time to atmospheres contaiming 
different amounts of water vapour. At the termination of these exposures 
the bags were transferred to a second large dessicator containing calcium 
chloride and remained there until barley-sowing season in November. 
At this season the germination of the barley subjected to various degrees 
of moist atmosphere for various durations of time was tested in each case. 
The experimental method was as follows. In order to obtain atmospheres 
containing different amounts of moisture a number of small dessicators of 
approximately uniform size were taken. Into successive dessicators were put 
200 c.c. of successively stronger solutions of sulphuric acid. (The sulphuric 
acid used was an ordinary commercial sample. The same sample of acid was 
used throughout the experiment. Its exact degree of strength and purity 
was unimportant as the technique of the experiment willshow.) A start was 
made with pure water in small dessicator No: 1, and 2 per cent. sulphuric acid 
in No. 2, 4 per cent. in No. 3 and so on; there being an increment of 2 per 
cent. acid in the solution in each succeeding dessicator. Upon the perforated 
floors of the dessicators, over the acid, the small bags of barley were placed. 
The glass top of the dessicator was then hermetically sealed by means of a 
lute of resin cerate. After an interval of one week one bag was removed from 
each small dessicator. These bags were marked so as to show the strength of 
acid and duration to which they had been exposed. They were then transferred 
to a large storage dessicator in the bottom of which was a quantity of 
anhydrous calcium chloride. From this dessicator the bags were taken out as 
fast as they could be dealt with and the germination of the grains in the 
various bags tested. Aftera further interval of a week a second bag of barley 
was removed from each small dessicator, labelled, and transferred to the large 
dessicator to await its turn for a germination experiment of its contents. 
