132 The Principles of Vegetable -Gardening 



often cracks seeds and thereby renders them almost 

 valueless. Larbaletrier asserts* that the injury from 

 the threshing machine in France, upon wheat, can 

 always be reckoned at 15 per cent of the crop. He 

 cut kernels with the pen -knife so as to represent the 

 injury from the machine, and compared their germi- 

 native power with that of sound kernels, under three 

 methods of treatment, with the following results : 



Sound kernels " Cut kernels 



68 per cent germinated 34 per cent germinated 



rjA till II o<(t( (( 



99 " " " 38 " " " 



Sturtevant mutilated in various ways the kernels 

 of Waushakum Flint Corn and seeds of beans and 

 planted them under the surface of soil: 



No. of kernels 



or seeds No. 



planted grew 



Corn, cut lengthwise to bisect germ 10 1 



Corn, more or less of the albumen removed . 20 12 



Corn, part of one edge removed 10 3 



Corn, small portion of chit removed, the 



embryo not being injured 10 



Bean, one cotyledon removed, germ uninjured . 20 13 



These researches, although showing that mutilated 

 seeds may grow, nevertheless prove that germination 

 is feeble and that mechanically injured seeds are 

 unreliable. 



The germinative vitality of weevil -eaten or "buggy" 

 peas is low, and the plants resulting from them are 

 usually feeble. Beal gives t the following results with 



*Le Cocq-de Lautreppe, Country Gentleman, Nov. 10, 1887, 852 

 tRep. Mich. Bd. Agr. 1879, 195. 



