1915] ROSE—DELAYED GERMINATION 427 
lined with sharp, close-set steel points against which the seeds are 
thrown and scratched as the cylinder revolves. 
Mention should be made here also of an apparatus invented 
by Ktue (19) for scraping the rough outer covering from sugar 
beet “seed.” Very satisfactory results have been obtained by its 
use, since “‘seeds”’ so treated absorb water better than untreated 
ones, and germinate more rapidly; they also give a better total 
germination, on account of the removal of fungus-infected mate- 
rial from the outside of the “seed,” especially if this removal is 
followed by treatment with some fungicide. 
With any one of the machines here described except the last, 
which serves a slightly different purpose, it has been found difficult 
to treat every seed that passes through and; at the same time, to 
avoid serious cracking of the coat or bruise of the entire seed 
(GLOCKENTOEGER I1). 
It is believed that these difficulties have been avoided in a 
machine devised and in use during the winter of 1912-1913 at the 
Hull Botanical Laboratory of the University of Chicago. This 
machine consists of a direct pressure blower, furnished by the 
Connersville Blower Co., to which is attached an apparatus through 
which seeds can be fed and blown against the points of a bank of 
needles. In experiments conducted with this machine, the blower 
was driven by a two horse-power motor and gave pressures as high 
as 2.5 pounds to the square inch. The needles used were of three 
sizes, nos. 4 and rr sewing needles and no. 4 darning needles, made 
up into three different cylindrical bunches or banks, each bank of 
course consisting of only one size of needles. The needles were 
held together by solder at the eye end and by wire or a ferrule one- 
half to two-thirds of the distance from the eye to the point. 
In the cut here shown (fig. 1) the needles are about half an 
inch from the end of the air tube. In practice a screen cap is 
Placed over the needles and the tube as a covering for a glass jar 
beneath, into which the seeds fall. To use the apparatus, valve 
€ is closed and valve b is opened; seeds are poured into compart- 
ment c; valve 6 is closed and the blower started; valve e is then 
opened wide enough to let the seeds out, but not so wide that they 
interfere with each other as they strike the needle points. It is 
