EXPERIMENTS IN KEEPING AND SHIPPING. 



69 



accompanied by a greater activity within the cells, and consequently 

 by a greater deterioration of vital force. For this reason the results 

 are not as definite as the conditions warrant. Nevertheless, some 

 important facts were brought out by the experiments which justify 

 their being discussed and tabulated (in part) at this time. 



TABLE XXVII. Vitality of seed preserved in paraffined packages. 



In the first place, the injury resulting from the effect of the climatic 

 influences is quite well marked in the above table. The conditions at 

 Mobile and Baton Rouge were much more detrimental to the life of 

 the seeds than were the conditions at Ann Arbor. Secondly, the dif- 

 ferences in the preservation of vitality of those seeds stored under 

 trade conditions and of those kept in dry rooms were much less marked 

 than they were in earlier experiments. This is probably accounted 

 for by the marked difference in the two seasons. The summer of 1900 

 was extremely wet in the South, especially at Mobile, while the sum- 

 mer of 1901 was exceptionally dry. Concerning the conditions Ziru- 

 mer Brothers wrote on November 26, 1901, as follows: 



We do not think you will find much difference in the two packages. The season 

 this year has been very dry, with no rain since the big August storm; in fact, we do 

 not remember such a dry season in thirty years. 



Although the season was exceptionally dry at Baton Rouge and 

 Mobile, the loss in vitalit}^ was very great in comparison with the loss 

 at Ann Arbor, demonstrating very clearly that climatic influences play 

 a very important part in the storage of seeds. 



This table shows the relative resisting powers of lettuce, cabbage, 

 and onion seed, the lettuce being most resistant and the onion least 

 resistant, as shown in a preceding table. However, the chief purpose 



