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PRESIDENT MANN: Are there any questions now? 



Mr. THOMPSON: Do I understand the maintenance of constant tem- 

 perature at the same humidity would tend to the highest per cent germina- 

 tion and the highest vitality of the seed? 



Dr. HOTTES: Yes, sir. 



Mr. THOMPSON: Is that condition desirable in the treatment of seed 

 during the dormant period? 



Dr. HOTTES: Yes. 



Mr. THOMPSON: In carrying that on would the seed be apt to lose 

 its resistance in the second germination? 



Dr. HOTTES: No, because we are not allowing it to go too far here. 

 We must not go beyond approximately twelve per cent. The most certain 

 measure of life activity that we have is the respiration process. You know 

 that when you exercise violently you breathe more rapidly. The plant 

 breathes all the time. 



Q. Your recommendation to the farmer is to build a seed storage plant 

 to maintain a constant condition of moisture? 



Dr. HOTTES: No, not necessarily a constant condition, but what we 

 want to do is to get some method by which we will do our drying in such 

 a way that we will not overdry or allow an over abundance of moisture to 

 remain. Now it is ordinarily easy to do that under ordinary atmospheric 

 conditions. If you keep the atmosphere humidity within certain limits the 

 corn will not take up too much or lose too much moisture. 



Q. In order to do that would you have to have some artificial heat? 



Dr. HOTTES: No, no. That depends, of course, on your weather con- 

 ditions. Now we could have artificial heat without any injury if we could 

 regulate the temperature, and especially regulate the circulation of the air. 



Here is another point. Be very careful of moist heat. Circulating moist 

 heat is very effective in destruction. 



Q. Do you think that the life of a seed that has properly matured and 

 dried can be prolonged by keeping it in cold storage at an equal low tem- 

 perature? 



Dr. HOTTES: I think that that may be helpful, but on the other hand 

 it may not necessarily be extremely effective, for the simple reason that 

 your corn plant is a plant that is not accustomed to the lower temperatures 

 as much as it is to the higher temperatures and a prolonged chilling may 

 have the same effect as a sudden rapid drop. In other words in all of our 

 work we have found that if we heat long it is the same thing as if we heat 

 distinctly higher for a short period, or if we exposed it for a long time to 

 a low temperature it has the same effect as a short time to a still lower 

 temperature. 



PRESIDENT MANN: It will withstand a low temperature if you have 

 the seed dry enough. 



Dr. HOTTES: Yes, it will withstand the temperature of liquid air. 



PRESIDENT MANN: You get less respiration with low temperature. 



Q. Have you made any studies of soy beans? 



Dr. HOTTES: We are now testing some twenty-two varieties of soy 

 beans. We are getting some interesting results, but I will give you only one 

 of them, to give you an illustration of what this means. For instance some 

 of our soy beans will take up the amount of water in two hours that others 

 will take four days to take up. Another thing we have found is that some 

 of the varieties are capable of piercing through a crust that other varieties 

 are never able to come through. Those things we are going into now, but 

 it is too early to make any definite statements on that line. 



Q. I would like to ask a question in regard to the use of the Utility 

 Score Card in judging exhibits of the county institute. I suppose that a 

 great many institutes conduct exhibits in connection with the institute 

 work. We attempted to use a Utility Score Card in our county a year ago, 

 but it did not give very much satisfaction on account of the inability to 

 apply the germination test. If we can't use the germination test, can we 

 in fairness use the Utility Score Card, inasmuch as 35 percent of the score 

 depends on the germination test? They attempted that in 1921 in Ogle 



