EXERCISE II 



SEED-TESTING 



Material. Seeds of clover, celery, onion, cucumber, tomato, 

 wheat, cabbage, oats, eggplant, beet, peas, rye, beans. 



Apparatus. Sprou ting-chamber, Geneva seed-tester, pane of 

 glass the size of the tester. 



Use the Geneva seed- tester to familiarize the student with this 

 method, which can be applied on a large or a small scale. Each 



seed-tester should be thoroughly 

 sterilized by placing about one inch 

 of water in the pan, allowing the 

 cloth to remain in the folds sus- 

 pended on the rods, and boiling 

 the water from fifteen minutes to 

 a half hour, or until everything is 

 thoroughly steamed. A piece of 

 glass should be placed over the top 

 of the tester to hold the steam and 

 to give a more thorough sterili- 

 zation. 



1. Count out one hundred seeds 

 of clover, celery, onion, cucumber, 

 tomato, wheat, cabbage, oats, egg- 

 plant, beets, rye, and fifty seeds of 

 peas and beans. Place the seeds 

 in the tester, which has previously 

 been thoroughly sterilized with 

 steam. Discuss why we sterilize 

 the tester. The tester should be 

 placed in a sprouting-chamber 



where the temperature can be maintained around 80 F. Why ? 

 Discuss fully what would happen to the seeds if the temperature 

 were to fall as low as 50 F. Why is it important that seeds 

 should not be planted until the soil is thoroughly warmed up ? 

 Will any seed germinate in the presence of oxygen and moisture 



[6] 



FIG. 3. Sprouting-chamber, or 



germinating-oven, showing the 



Geneva seed-testers on the 



shelves 



