SEEDS 7 1 



soak. When this second lot of seeds has soaked 

 two hours, you will have two lots of soaked seeds 

 of each kind, one of which has soaked twenty-four 

 hours and the other two hours. Now take these 

 seeds from the water and dry the surplus water 

 from them by gently patting or rubbing a few at a 

 time in the folds of a piece of cloth, taking care 

 not to break the skin or outer coating of the seed. 

 Place them in dry bottles, putting in enough to 

 cover the bottoms of the bottles about three seeds 

 deep ; cork the bottles. If you cannot find corks, 

 tie paper over the mouths of the bottles. Label the 

 bottles " Seeds soaked 24 hours," " Seeds soaked 

 2 hours," and let them stand in a warm place sev- 

 eral days. If there is danger of freezing at night, 

 the bottles of seeds may be kept in the kitchen or 

 living room where it is warm, until they sprout. 



Observe the seeds from day to day. The seeds 

 that soaked twenty-four hours will sprout readily 

 (Fig. 36), while most, if not all, of those that soaked 

 only two hours will not sprout. Why is this? It 

 is because the two-hour soaked seeds do not receive 

 sufficient moisture to carry on the process of sprout- 

 ing. 



Our experiment teaches us that seeds will not 

 sprout until they receive enough moisture to soak 

 them through and through. 



This also teaches that when we plant seeds we 

 must so prepare the soil for them and so plant them 

 that they will be able to get sufficient moisture to 

 sprout. 



