12 



Germination in per cent after 10 20 30 days 



190203 1 2 5 (+ 3)* 



190304 27 54 54 



190405 5 30 33 



190506 28 46 50 (+ 1) 



190708 43 55 (+ 14) 



190910 24 64 66 (+ 6) 



The sample of 1902 03 was certainly year old seed; sown in 

 the nursery it would not have come up at all it being an estab- 

 lished fact that seeds which germinate badly in the germinating 

 apparatus do so still worse, if at all, in the ground. It appears 

 also, that in three of the years mentioned, the energy of germi- 

 nation was so high that the 10 day figures showed with certainty 

 that the seed was good, and the 20 day germination was so high 

 that the experiment could quite well have been brought to a close. 

 In the year 1904 05 the bad 10 day result of only 5 per cent 

 showed that the germinating energy was small, and the final re- 

 sult after 30 days is in agreement with the bad beginning. 



On the other hand, 190708 shows a difference. The 10 day 

 germination is 0, but after 20 days the result is already good, and 

 the 30 day result: 55 % germinated plus 14 / sound, but not yet 

 germinated seeds, shows that the experiment might with ad- 

 vantage have been continued for another ten days. The question 

 presents itself: why this different result in 1907 08, when the 

 seed in the three other years was in full germination after 10 

 days? This is not an easy question to answer. Perhaps, from cau- 

 ses hitherto unknown, the germinating energy of the seed changes 

 from one year to another, perhaps the germinating experiment 

 of 1907 08 was carried out at a lower temperature than in the 

 other years. I do not know and I have not investigated the tech- 

 nique of seed testing; it is not in the sphere of my work. During 

 the last 10 years, I have always placed unbounded confidence in 

 the untiring energy and circumspection with which our "Dansk 

 Frdkontrol" has worked in the interests of seed research and of 

 the seed trade, so I am convinced that the best possible was done. 

 But, obviously, progress has not said its last word in this matter; 

 on the contrary, the officials of the Seed-testing Institution and I 



* The figures given in brackets refer to the number of seeds still sound, but not yet germinated 

 after a certain number of days. 



