TESTING THE SEED 145 



evaporation of moisture. Common blotting paper can be 

 used for pads if desired. The tester should then be left 

 in some convenient place at ordinary room temperature 

 (70 F.) or slightly above. At the expiration of twenty- 

 four hours the tester is examined, and if the pads are some- 

 what dry, they should be moistened. The lower pad should 

 be raised when these examinations are made so as to admit 

 air underneath the pad, which facilitates the process of 

 germination. Seeds should show signs of germination 

 after being in the tester for seventy- two hours. All good 

 seeds under favorable conditions will have sprouted after 

 being in the tester five days. Those not sprouted at this 

 time may be rejected as worthless, but should be kept at 

 least twenty-four hours beyond the usual time so as to leave 

 no doubt as to the reliability of the results. As the seeds 

 sprout they should be taken from the tester from day to day 

 and a record made of the test on a slip of paper that may be 

 kept on top of the pads. In making these tests the vigor 

 shown in the sprouting of the seeds should be taken into 

 consideration as well as the number of seeds sprouted. A 

 seed that is tardy in germinating and puts forth a weak 

 sprout is not desirable. Occasionally hard seeds are found 

 in alfalfa that seem impervious to moisture and consequently 

 will not germinate in the allotted time, but will germinate, 

 however, in the ground after frost has acted upon them, or 

 if they have been scratched by passing through a seeder. 

 It is customary for seed laboratories to count a third of 

 all hard seeds found in a test as germinable. 



Sowing without a Nurse Crop. In the early spring the 

 disk should be run over the land and followed with a fine- 

 tooth harrow at weekly intervals until about June i, so 

 that the weeds will sprout and be killed. This treatment 



M. AND H. PLANT PROD. IO 



