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Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



serve as a cover. The pair of plates is then set in a warm place where 

 the temperature can be kept at from 70 to 75 F. Every twenty-four 

 hours the plates and blotters are opened, and the seeds which have 

 sprouted in the meantime are counted and the count recorded. In the 

 case of the best alfalfa seed, fully half the seeds that will germinate 

 are found to have sprouted within the first forty-eight hours. The test 

 is always continued, however, for five days. As stated, this germination 

 test should be carried out in duplicate, and, if possible, three or four lots 

 of one hundred seeds each should be tested. 



After the five days' germination test it frequently happens that a 

 larger or smaller number of seeds are left which refuse to germinate, 

 despite the fact that they appear perfectly sound. These so-called hard 

 seeds will germinate in time in the soil. It is the custom in seed labora- 

 tories to add one-third of the hard seeds remaining at the end of the 

 germination test to the total number that have actually sprouted, to 

 make the final germination percentage, assuming that approximately this 

 number of the hard seeds will germinate in the soil. If properly cared 

 for alfalfa seed will live for a long time. The data at hand indicate 

 that absolutely first-class seed kept under the best conditions should not 

 fall below a germination percentage of 90 in six years, while seed that 



FIG. 188. Alfalfa seeds, highly magnified. 



