108 



GRASSES OP IOWA. 



Table No. VIII was condensed from data tabulated by Prof, 

 F. D. Chester. The figures given are the results of duplicate- 

 tests in each case. The vitalities average quite high. 



In 1877 Professor Beal of Michigan tested the vitality of 

 twenty-two species of forage grasses. These seeds were pur- 

 chased direct from a seedsman in New York. The seeds, or 

 what appeared to be se-ds, were counted out in lots of fifty 

 seeds each, and two lots of each species were germinated 

 between folds of bibulous paper in the greenhouse, at a 

 temperature ranging from 56''-70° F. Two lots more of each 

 species were tested again later and the results of the tests are= 

 given below in condensed form: 



TABLE No. IX. 



FIRST TEST. 



Schrader's bromus 



Hungarian grass 



Timothy 



Nineteen other species. 



SECOND TEST. 



Schroeder's brotcus.. . . 



Hungarian grass 



Timothy 



Nineteen other species. 



68 

 72 

 98 

 3» 



62- 

 48- 

 52 

 23 



Professor Beal then made tests of some grass seeds which 

 he had gathered on the college farm two and three years before .- 

 Besides their age, part of them had been stored in a damp- 

 basement. He did not consider them good seed. While test- 

 ing them he also tested some more from the same lot described 

 above. Both lots were shelled out of the chaff by hand so that 

 there were exactly fifty seeds of each species. The striking 

 results are given below: 



*3eed testing. Delaware Agrl. Exp. Station. Ann Report. 2:46-57. Also Bull. 5. 

 +Mlchlgan Board of Agriculture. Ann. Report. 1877: 377-392. See 387-389. Also Beal; 

 Grasses of No. Am. 1 : 209-210. (Ed. 2.) 



