300 BULLETIN 312 



germinates readily. The seed from the different plants was handled 

 alike in curing and in planting. 



One of the questions arising in this work is whether similar results 

 from treated seed would obtain when the test is made in the soil rather 

 than between blotting papers. So when this work was undertaken, one 

 lot of seed from each of several samples was treated with acid for 10 

 minutes and placed between moist blotting papers, while another lot 

 was treated with acid in the same manner and then "planted in sand in 

 pots. At the same time checks for each lot were run. This check seed 

 was soaked in water, then placed between moist blotting paper; or, for 

 the soil test, it was planted in sand. Since, as stated above, some of 

 this seed had been planted in the field at the Illinois Experiment Station, 

 the results obtained there will be given also. These results are shown 

 in Table 2, under the heading " Per cent germination in field." 



1234 



FIG. 78. Soil tests of treated and untreated clover seed. Seed in pots I and j untreated. 



Seed in pots 2 and 4 treated 



On examining this table one sees that most of the seed gave a very 

 poor germination in the field and also in the checks, whether planted in 

 sand or germinated between blotting paper. In several instances the 

 check seed gave a lower germination than did the field test. This may 

 be explained in part by the fact that the checks were run two years after 

 the field test was made. In the case of seed Nos. 127 and 172, a lower 

 germination was obtained for the treated seed than the field test gave. 

 This is very likely due to the age of the seed. In all cases, with the ex- 

 ception of the two mentioned, the acid treatment gave a higher rate of 

 germination than did the untreated seed in the field test. Several of 

 the lots showed a great increase after acid treatment. Later work showed 

 that a longer acid treatment than 10 minutes was better for most clover 

 seed, so it is possible that had these samples been treated for a longer 

 time a much higher rate of germination would have been obtained. The 

 averages for the different kinds of treatment are 27.7 for the field test, 

 20.8 for the checks, and 67.45 for the treated seed. The seeds that were 

 germinated between blotting papers gave a germination per cent of 

 68.8, while those planted in sand germinated at the rate of 66.1 per cent. 



