46 THE VITALITY AND GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



CHARACTER OF THE SEED WAREHOUSE OR STORAGE ROOM. 



Another important factor in the storing of seeds is the character of 

 the seed warehouse or storage room. The first point to be considered 

 is dryness. Such houses should be kept as dry as possible, which can 

 be accomplished either by means of artificial heat or by the use of 

 strong drying agents, or better still, by both. True, if the seed ware- 

 house be located in a section having a dry climate, this difficulty is at 

 once largely overcome. But in many cases such a location is imprac- 

 ticable or even impossible, and other means must be resorted to. As 

 a matter of fact, most large seed warehouses are not heated and a 

 great loss in vitality inevitably follows; but each seedsman must 

 determine for himself whether or not this loss is sufficiently great to 

 justify the expense of heating such a storage room. 



Experiments carried on during the progress of this work have 

 shown some very marked differences in favor of seeds stored in rooms 

 artificially heated. The averages of the thirteen samples of seeds from 

 the eight places at which they were stored show a difference in the 

 loss of vitality of 9.87 per cent. Those kept in rooms that were arti- 

 ficially heated during a greater portion of the time deteriorated 25.91 

 per cent, while those stored in rooms not so heated deteriorated 35.78 

 per cent. The loss here given for seeds stored in dry rooms is greater 

 than such conditions warrant, owing to the very unfavorable condi- 

 tions at Mobile, Ala., and Baton Rouge, La. At Lake City, Fla., the 

 relative percentages of deterioration were 29.42 and 16.27 for the 

 unheated and heated rooms, respectively; at Auburn, Ala., 38.90 and 

 10.34 per cent, and at Durham, N. H., 39.58 and 3.57 per cent, respec- 

 tively. Unfortunately these experiments were not made with this 

 definite point in view, and the results are not entirely satisfactory, as 

 no records were made of the temperatures and humidities. 



THE VALUE OF GOOD SEED TO THE MARKET GARDENER. 



This work was undertaken chiefly for the purpose of finding some 

 improved methods of shipping and storing seeds in small packages, 

 wherein their vitality might be better preserved. The rapid deterio- 

 ration in vitality causes great losses to gardeners living in districts 

 where the climatic conditions bring about the premature destruction 

 of vitality in seeds. In many cases the seeds are practically worthless 

 or altogether fail to germinate after a few weeks' exposure. The loss 

 in such cases is not in the greater quantity of seed required, but the 

 retardation or complete failure of the germination often means delay, 

 making the difference between success arid failure in the desired crop. 

 Seed of low vitality is even worse than dead seed. With the latter the 

 difficulty is soon discovered, while with the former, although the seed 

 will germinate, the seedlings are not sufficiently vigorous to develop 



