1903.] 



PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 



41 



show the marked effects that soil sterilization has upon ger- 

 mination and growth. We had made no experiments, how- 

 ever, to ascertain to what extent acceleration took place in 

 seed germination, until the following were made, the results 

 of which are shown in the table : — 



In these experiments we purposely made use of seeds 

 representing considerable variations in age and of low ger- 

 minating capacity, and where certain numbers are omitted 

 in column 1, it should be understood that in such cases the 

 seeds were so old that little or no germination took place. 

 The seeds in each experiment were taken from uniform lots, 

 i.e., they were supposed to be of the same age and from the 

 same source ; and where the same kind of seed appears twice 

 in the table, it indicates that they are of different age and 

 origin. Two hundred seeds were used in each experiment, 

 one hundred beino- sown in sterilized soil and one hundred 

 from the same lot in unsterilized soil. In some instances 

 the experiment is repeated three times, in which case we 

 have the average germination of six hundred seeds. The 

 soil used was the same, except that one lot was sterilized, 

 the other not. The lower the per cent, of germination 



