12 AGRICULTURE 



easily be made at home. The rag-doll tester can be easily 

 made, takes up but little space and is very convenient for 

 school work in testing of all kinds of seeds. 



Another practical tester is the sawdust germination box. 

 This tester may be prepared as follows: Construct a box 

 30 inches square and 4 inches deep. Put some sawdust in 

 a bag and soak it in warm water until it is well saturated. 

 Fill the box half full of the sawdust, packing it in well. 

 Take a piece of good white cloth and rule it off in 2J-inch 

 squares, making 100 squares in all, and numbering them 

 from 1 to 100. Place the cloth on the sawdust so that there 

 will be a margin of at least two inches between the sides of 

 the box and the squares. Tack cloth to the edges of the 

 box. 



Now take 100 ears of the corn to be tested and lay them 

 out in a row on a table or planks. Drive a nail into the 

 table every tenth ear, separating the entire lot into 10 

 groups of 10 ears each. Number the ears from 1 to 100 

 to correspond with the squares in the tester. This may 

 be done by numbering the places on the edge of the table 

 if care is taken not to change places with the ears. 



Making the test. Remove one kernel from near the 

 butt, one from near the middle, and one from near the 

 tip of the ear; turn the ear over and remove three ker- 

 nels from corresponding positions on the other side of 

 the ear. These six kernels a.re to be placed, germ side up 

 and tips all toward one side of the box, in the squares 

 over the sawdust, those from ear No. 1 in square No. 1 

 and so on, until six kernels have been taken from each 

 of the 100 ears and placed in the tester. 



After the kernels are all in position, thus filling the 100 

 squares, lay a piece of cloth over them, taking care not to 

 disturb their positions. Sprinkle this cloth well with warm 

 water. Now lay over this another cloth about twice the 



