44 



ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



or by pulling the weed plants from a small plat of grow- 

 ing grain, thereby getting a start in clean seed. 



Grading Seed Grain. — Many persons are satisfied when 

 they get pure and clean seed grain; but, if one wishes to 

 get the best results and maintain or improve grain from year 

 to year, it is necessary to grade out and use for seed only 

 the very best individual seeds in the whole amount grown 

 on the farm. This may be cheaply done by grading the 

 grain as shown on page 42. In this way the heavy plump, 

 kernels are separated from the smaller, lighter ones. The 

 former kernels should be used for seed and the latter sold 

 or used for feed. 



Germination. — It is as important that seed grain ger- 

 minates (starts to grow) well as that seed corn germinates 



well. It is a very sim- 

 ple matter to test seed 

 grain for germination, 

 and this should always 

 be done before it is 

 planted. A good ger- 

 minator is made as fol- 

 lows: Partly fill a plate 

 with sawdust or sand, 

 cover with a cloth, and 

 on this scatter one hun- 

 dred seeds. Cover with 

 another cloth, moisten 

 and cover all with an inverted plate. See Figure 16. An- 

 other simple germinator for grain and grass seed is made 

 out of blotting paper. Place the seeds to germinate between 

 two squares of the blotting paper. Good seed in such a 

 germinator, kept moist and in a warm room, as a living room 

 or school house, for from five to seven days, will sprout. 

 The number out of the one hundred that start to grow vig- 

 orously in that length of time will represent the per cent 

 of the seed that will be likely to grow in the field. It will 

 pay to try this with several different kinds of grains. 

 Questions: 



1. From what source is one most likely to get good Seed gram 

 for most of a planting? Why? 



2. In what ways may weed seeds be separated from seed grain? 



Figure 16. — A simple germinator for testing seed 

 grain. The lower plate is partly filled with 

 sand, the grain placed between the cloths on 

 top of the sand and all covered by an inverted 

 plate. If kept moist and in a warm room, 

 good seed will germinate in from 5 to 7 days. 



