276 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
THE DORMANT PERIOD OF TIMOTHY SEED ATER HARVESTING. 
M. L. FISHER, Purdue University. 
The suggestion for this study came in August, 1916, through a 
request from the Illinois Seed Company, Chicago, Illinois, asking for 
data as to the length of time after harvesting until timothy seed reached 
its maximum germinating power. No such data were at hand and a 
very careful search of all the available literature revealed but one men- 
tion of any previous work on the subject. In Fvhling’s Landwirth- 
schaftliche Zeitung for March 15, 1894, there was reported such a study 
of several different kinds of seeds, and from that study a conclusion had 
been drawn that timothy seed reaches its maximum germinating percent 
in four weeks after harvest. 
At the time of receiving the above inquiry it was too late to make 
an investigation for the season of 1916. In the season of 1917 an inves- 
tigation was begun. Heads of timothy were harvested from a lot back 
of the Agricultural Building at Purdue University. It was decided to 
make the study in two parts. 
1. A study of the germinating qualities of individual heads was 
made to see if there was such a thing as individuality in heads. 
2. A number of heads were shelled together for a mass selection and 
this was used in duplicate. The shelled seed was allowed to stand in an 
open pan in the laboratory. The timothy heads were not ripe enough 
to shatter from the spikes, but were easily shelled. The culms below 
the spikes were still green. The heads were harvested August 11th, 
and the first tests set at once. The second test was set August 20th, 
and the third test September 5th. For the individual head testing, five 
heads were selected. A small amount of seed was shelled from the base 
of the spikes and one hundred seeds (more or less accurately) counted 
out for testing. For the mass tests duplicate lots of one hundred seeds 
(more or less accurately counted) were taken. The seeds were tested 
on blotters in moist chambers formed by turning one plate over another. 
The following tables show the results of these tests: 
