92 



GRASSES OP IOWA. 



On the general subject of climate and its influence on the 

 germination of seeds, little that is positive can be said. In 

 some of our own experiments the California seeds germinated 

 better, and the plants were more vigorous than those of Iowa, 

 but it should be taken into consideration that the California 

 wheats are soft and that it is not improbable that the reserve 

 food substances were brought into a state of solution sooner 

 than in the hard wheats. The very striking differences 

 reported by Professor Bailey in corn do not occur in wheat. 

 The cross-bred wheats and other varieties grown in the 

 state of New York and the East, seems to have germinated 

 slower than those from the Mississippi Valley states, especially 

 so when compared with the wheats of Kansas, Iowa and Wis- 

 consin. As stated in a previous paragraph, the California 

 wheats w^ere especially characterized by the high per cent of 

 germination and the vigor of the young plants. It may be 

 stated that the test made with these plants occurred several 

 months la er than those made with the other wheats. Yet a 

 second trial gave us nearly the same results. 



In the second ttial the plants were all grown at the same 

 time. The Early May of Kansas was comparable with the 

 Patati, only somewhat stouter. The Bissell and Andrews 

 were smaller than the Early May. The Turkey Red, Kansas, 

 was smaller than the Bissell. The cross-bred wheats lacked 

 vigor, and were extremely slow in coming up. The Canada 

 Hybrid, in this experiment, came up rather slowly, although 

 finally it grew quite vigorously. 



The following table shows the influence that latitude has on 

 the germination of a single variety of wheat tested at Ames. 



It may be of interest to briefly compare the germination of 

 the different varieties of wheat from different states grown 

 under the same conditions. This work was carried out several 

 years ago by Pammel and Stewart. 



Early May, from Kansas, total percentage of germination, 

 88. All of the seed practically germinated in eight days; one- 



