GERMINATION OF SEED AS AFFECTED BY SULFURIC ACID TREATMENT 325 



Dr. H. J. Webber, on visiting a cotton-oil mill at Shreveport, La., 

 found that the manufacturers were using sulfuric acid to delint their seed. 

 It occurred to him that it might be feasible to delint seed for planting, 

 and thus render possible the use of a machine like a corn planter. With 

 this in mind he obtained some seed, compared the germination of it with 

 that of some untreated seed, and found that the treated seed germinated 

 earlier and better than did the check. 



Effect of acid treatment on disease 



It occurred to the writers that the acid treatment might have some 

 effect on anthracnose, the germs of which are carried by the seed. While 

 the germination experiments were being conducted there came to hand 

 a bulletin from the Alabama Experiment Station, No. 153, by J. F. Duggar 

 and E. T. Cauthen. In this bulletin the authors show the results obtained 

 for different seed treatments for anthracnose. Sulfuric acid was among 

 the treatments tried, the seed being treated for 5 to 8 minutes. The 

 percentage of bolls attacked by boll rot for the checks or untreated seed 

 was 10.6, while for the seed treated with sulfuric acid only 5.9 per cent 

 of the bolls were attacked. Thus the injury due to anthracnose was 

 practically diminished by half. It is possible that a longer treatment 

 would have given better results. 



Effect of acid treatment on viability 



In order to test the efficiency of sulfuric acid in delinting cotton seed 

 and the effect that such treatment would have on the viability of the 

 seed, three lots of cotton seed were obtained for trial. Two of these lots 

 were obtained from E. T. Coker, of Society Hill, S. C., one of which, 

 designated as C 09, was of the crop of 1909; the other, designated as C 10, 

 was of the crop of 1910. The history of the third lot, designated as C, 

 is unknown, but it was similar to the other lots in appearance and in 

 amount of lint attached to the seed. 



It was found that the lint could be completely removed from the seed 

 by treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid for about 30 minutes to 

 i hour, and further tests showed conclusively that the viability was not 

 injured by this treatment. 



As shown by Table 16, the germination of cotton seed is accelerated 

 and the total amount germinating (after 20 days) is considerably increased 

 by the action of concentrated sulfuric acid for 15 minutes. The germina- 

 tion of the check tests, soaked in water for 1 5 minutes before being placed 

 between blotters in order to compensate for the washings that the treated 

 seed received, averaged 82 . 5 per cent at the end of 20 days. The average 

 f9r the two lots soaked in concentrated sulfuric acid was 91.5 per cent, 



