SEEDS 



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SEEDS 



ter. Pour enough water into the plate to 

 moisten the paper and then lay ten seeds to be 

 tested in each square. Cover them with an- 

 other piece of blotting paper or with a damp 

 cloth, and cover this by turning the second 

 plate over the first. Keep the blotter moist 

 and set the plates where the temperature will 

 be about the same as that of the soil at the time 

 of planting. In eight or ten days the seed 



SEED TESTING 

 A simple device for testing seeds in sand. 



should have germinated (sprouted) . Count the 

 number of seeds in each square that have 

 germinated, and you have the percentage of 

 good seed in the lot from which the seeds were 

 taken. 



A strip of muslin, nine inches wide and a yard 

 long, marked as shown in the cut, is convenient 

 for testing seed corn. Test as many ears as 

 there are squares on the cloth, numbering each 

 ear to correspond with the square in which 

 kernels taken from it are placed. Place a round 

 stick on the blank end of the cloth and roll it 

 up lightly, taking care not to disturb the ker- 

 nels. Tie the roll loosely and place it in water 

 over night, then bury in damp sawdust or sand 

 and keep it at a temperature of 65 or 70 

 until the corn germinates. A box of sand 

 marked off into squares by strings or wires is 

 more convenient for testing a large quantity of 

 seeds. 



Use of Seeds. The purpose of the seed in 

 nature is to reproduce the plant, and almost 

 every plant produces a large number of seeds, 



but only a part of these grow. Some are eaten 

 by birds and animals, some are destroyed by 

 fire and other agencies, and some fall upon 

 rocks or in water where they cannot germinate. 

 But the greatest use of seeds is for food for 

 man and domestic 

 animals. By far the 

 greater part of the 

 food of all the peo- 

 ple in the world con- 

 sists of seeds. In 

 America and Europe 

 wheat, corn, rye, oats 

 and barley are the 

 grains most exten- 

 sively grown for food. 

 In Asia rice is the 

 chief article of food; 

 hence the world over, 

 growing seeds (grain) 

 is the chief occupa- 

 tion of the agricul- 

 turist. W.F.R. 



Consult United 

 States Department of 

 Agriculture's Year 

 Books, issued annu- 

 ally. 



Related Subjects. 



The reader is referred 

 to the articles on the 

 various plants men- 

 tioned above, and to 

 the following articles 

 in addition : 

 Angiosperms 

 Botany 

 Cotyledon 

 Cross-Fertilization 

 Flowers 

 Fruit 



Germination 

 Grains 



Gymnosperms 

 Plant 



Pollen and Pollination 

 Spore 



SEED TESTING 

 How cloth is marked. 



Seed Dispersal 



The fruits of many plants are constructed for 

 the special purpose of scattering the seeds or 

 to aid in their dispersal by wind, water and 

 animals. The seeds themselves are fitted for 

 long journeys and can withstand conditions 

 that would kill most plants. Some seeds re- 

 main in good condition for long periods of time, 

 and grain has even been grown from the seeds 

 found in ancient Egyptian mummy cases, where 

 it has lain for thousands of years. 



The seeds of wild plants are sown in un- 

 imaginable numbers by natural agencies, each 

 year making good the loss of vegetation due to 

 all destructive causes. Owing to the lack of 

 sufficiently thorough and rapid distribution, in- 

 sect and plant enemies and unfavorable condi- 

 tions, only a small proportion of the seeds 

 produce new plants. When ripe, many seeds 

 detach themselves from the fruit; others, by 

 various devices of nature and by atmospheric 



