TESTING SEEDS AT HOME. 



181 



Days. 



Redtop, hair grass, chervil, carrots, fennel, esparsette, sorghum. C> 



Spruce, fox-tail grass, sweet vernal grass, canary grass, Deschampsia, Trise- 



fnni, Poa, crested dog's tail, velvet grass, red and sheep's fescue __ 7 



Fir, pines (except white pine), maple 10 



White pine ' 14 



In nearly every test, especially of leguminous seeds, there will be 

 some that remain hard. These can not be regarded as dead seeds, 

 because Iheir condition is due to the hardness of the seed coats. The 

 number of such seeds should be recorded. 



SPECIAL CARE NEEDED IN TESTING BEET-SEED BALLS. 



In testing beet-seed balls special care is necessary in recording the 

 number of germinated seeds. The balls must be left in the test 



FIG. 33. Simple germinating apparatus. A, closed; B, open. 



during the entire period of fourteen days, but whenever a seed has 

 sprouted it must be cut out with a sharp knife ; or the root may be 

 allowed to grow two or three days and then broken off and counted. 

 The roots will either not grow out again, or, if they do, can not be 

 mistaken for fresh ones. Either operation is very simple, and can be 

 done by any one without the least trouble. The removal of the ger- 

 minated seed or of the young roots is the only sure way of making an 

 accurate test of the germination of beet-seed balls. One hundred 

 seed balls should produce at least 150 seedlings. 



1 Yearbook, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1894, p. 399. 



