JOHN S. GOULD'S ADDRESS. 613 



farmer's acquaintance, and within reach of his own personal 

 investigation, which would with difficulty be arrived at by any 

 other means. The plan adopted by your State, in common 

 with many others, has been productive of much good. Many 

 of these reports contain essays on agriculture of extreme value. 

 Thus the essays by Professor Norton, published in the New 

 York State Report, may be classed among the very best papers 

 extant on chemistry as applied to agriculture, and among 

 many of my correspondents I have found quotations from 

 his essay, and giving evidence of having applied the truths 

 there learned in the principal operation of their farms. Ad- 

 dresses of a practical kind are also published, and these help 

 to make up a compendium of all the current improvements of 

 the day, placing them before practical men for indorsement or 

 refutation. 



FACTS IN RELATION TO THE GERMINATION 

 AND GROWTH OF INDIAN CORN. 



[Extracts from an Address Delivered at the last Fair of the Hampshire, Franklin 

 and Hampden Jlgricxdtural Society, October 7, 1852. By John Stanton 

 Gould, of Hudson, N. Y.] 



The first point in connection with germination, is, that the 

 soil shall be of the proper temperature. Every different plant 

 has its germinating temperature, or rather 3. rang-e of tempera- 

 ture, peculiar to itself. Thus, wheat cannot germinate except 

 between 45° and 95'°. Corn will not vegetate unless the 

 temperature of the soil attains to 55"^, and at a temperature 

 higher than 110° it equally refuses to germinate. This is 

 a matter of great practical importance, the neglect of which 

 diminishes the production of corn far more than most farmers 

 have ever dreamed of The chit alone, contains the germ ; 

 all other portions of the kernel are mere reservoirs of nutriment 

 for the germ, until it is enabled to draw its sustenance from 

 other sources. Now if the seed is deposited in the soil at a 

 lower temperature than 55°, we have seen that there can be 

 no germination ; meanwhile, if cold, wet weather continues 



