30 GROWING THE SEEDLINGS 



results in the open ground, so are of little value as a 

 guide. 



In buying seed for nursery work one should make every 

 effort to get those of the current year's growth, and then 

 by applying a number of mechanical tests a fairly accurate 

 forecast can be made. Several seeds should be opened 

 and the kernels examined with a lense. If it is plump, 

 well developed, the surface showing few wrinkles and the 

 embryo fresh, one can be reasonably sure of good seed. 

 Good kernels of the stone fruits should not show a gummed 

 condition. 



Viability of Fruit Seed. No very accurate experi- 

 ments are available to show just how long seeds may be 

 kept and still germinate. One can be reasonably sure that 

 all the larger seeds when once thoroughly dried out will 

 never germinate. When kept under best known condi- 

 tions they may hold their vitality for a long time; in some 

 cases as long as ten or fifteen years. 



Many nurserymen have commented upon the fact that 

 the germinating qualities are widely variable from year 

 to year. The year the seed is collected the per cent of 

 germination should be high; the second year low; the third 

 year high again and so on; the alternate years being either 

 high or low in the per cent germinating. In the writer's 

 own experience peach seeds have been known to germinate 

 eighty-five per cent the first year, ten per cent the second, 

 seventy-five the third; all from the same seed crop. These 

 seeds were kept in a bag on an earthen floor in a damp 

 but not wet cellar. 



