156 THE SUGAR BEET. 



sort of dormant state, and will not even then show- 

 signs of a great amount of vitality unless certain con- 

 ditions are fulfilled, evidently the most important is 

 humidity, then air and heat. 



Humidity. — This facilitates the rupture of the exte- 

 rior and hard portion called spermoderme and nu- 

 cleus. In this manner the germination may continue. 

 Evidently the amount of humidity required varies 

 with the thickness of the nucleus ; if in excess will do 

 more harm than good, as there will be danger of ab- 

 sorbing the elements that are required to feed the em- 

 bryo before it is able to extract what nourishment it 

 requires from the soil. 



The quantity of water which the seed is capable of 

 absorbing varies with the temperature. The first ex- 

 periments made in this direction took place . in G-er- 

 many, and were repeated in several of the beet-growing 

 countries. We made several tests in l^ew Jersey soil, 

 and obtained the following results : — 



71 per cent, of the weight of the seed. 

 93 't It (( u ki t( 



9(; u i( a •( <i a 



9g U U (1 U (( u 



W(j (I (( ti ti (1 a 



There seems to exist no exact law governing the 

 above. We have had seeds in hot water and the ab- 

 sorption has been one to one and half of their own 

 volume. We consider that it is partly on this account 

 that it is impossible to grow the beet with satisfactory 



