in more or less concentrated nutrient solutions. The discovery was then 

 made immediately, that such treatment assistance is often useless, and some- 

 times injurious. 



Fertilization experiments with beets, made by Fremy and Deherain. 

 throw some light on this point. They proved that ammonium sulfate and 

 potassium salts have an injurious efifect on the germinative process, and 

 they also found that germination failed entirely, even with a concentration 

 of 0.2 per cent. The results of soaking experiments made by Tautphous^ 

 with beans, peas, maize, rape, rye and wheat proved that seeds soaked in 

 distilled water germinated best of all and that the capacity for germination 

 was the more reduced, the more concentrated the solutions (potassium chlo- 

 rid, sodium chlorid, (commercial) sodium nitrate, potassium iulfate, potas- 

 sium phosphate and calcium nitrate in a solution of 0.5 to 5 per cent.). Rape 

 germinated in a 2 per cent, solution almost as well as in distilled water, 

 while the other seeds were considerably impaired, even in a 0.5 per cent, 

 solution. The development of the seedlings was considerably more lux- 

 uriant in a 3 per cent, sodium chlorid solution than in distilled water. 



Fleischer- reports on an experiment made in East Prussia, in fertiliz- 

 ing potato seed with kainit and superphosphates ; a considerable number 

 did not sprout and at the time of harvesting were found unchanged in the 

 soil. The analysis of these tubers gave a content of pure ash nearly twice 

 as great as the average values given in A\'olflf's ash analyses. In a thousand 

 parts of dry weight the ungerminated tubers, compared with normal ones, 

 contained potassium in the proportion of 37 to 22. While the calcium con- 

 tent was almost the same in the diseased and normal tubers, the magnesium 

 was apparently twice as great in the former; the phosphoric acid almost 

 double, and the chlorin content thirteen times as great as in the normal 

 tubers. The sulfuric acid also increased to four times the amount in one 

 thousand parts of dry weight, so that it is evident that exactly the elements 

 of the kainit (potassium, sodium, magnesia, sulfuric acid and chlorin) had 

 undergone an unusual increase in the ash of the unsprouted tubers. In the 

 present case, the fertilizer was applied in the spring directly before the 

 potatoes were planted, not sometime previous to planting, as prescribed in 

 the directions for the use of kainit. 



In Fittbogen's" field experiments ^^ ith oats, which had been mixed in 

 a gruel of superphosphate before sowing, the plot sown with candied seed 

 yielded less than did that with unfertilized seed. If, on the other hand, the 

 superphosphate was diluted with sawdust, the yield was the heaviest of all. 

 Probably the sulfuric acid hydrate which often appears, together witli 

 phosphoric acid hydrate, also acts injuriously in direct contact with the 

 superphosphate. Briigmann"* also reports on the injurious action of fcr- 



1 T.iutphous. v.. Die Keimune: der Samcn bei verschiedener Besrhaffcnheit 

 deraelben. rit. P.ot. Jahi-esber. 1876. II. p. 117. 



- Beobachtung-en liber den srhadlichen Einfliifs der Kainit- und Superphosphat- 

 diing-ung- auf die Keimfahig-keit der Kartoffeln. Biedermann's Centralbl. 1880, p. 765. 



3 Deutsche landwirt.schaftl. Presse 1877, No. 81. 



4 Hannover'sche landwirtsch, Zeit. 1881, No, 12. 



