58 THE beginner's garden book 



planting, though if only a small quantity, say a penny 

 packet, has been bought, ten seeds will be better. If out 

 of the twenty-five twenty are good, then eighty per cent of 

 the seed are good. If out of the ten there are nine which are 

 good, then ninety per cent of the packet will sprout. Eighty, 

 and indeed ninety, per cent of the seed ought to be good, and 

 if the percentage is less than seventy, then the seed as a whole 

 is not satisfactory. If the percentage is low, as tested more 

 than once, then complaint ought to be made to the seller 

 of the seed. 



A farm boy may use this method to test the oats or grass or 

 wheat which is to be planted in the spring, but on account 

 of the great quantity of seed used, he should test more seed, 

 a hundred at least. If repeated tests show a low percent- 

 age of live seed, the seedsman ought to provide a new supply. 

 Of course the seedsman may complain that the test was not 

 fair. In such a case the matter can be settled by sending a 

 sample to the state agricultural experiment station, where it 

 will be tested free, or for a small fee. At any rate, if a boy 

 has been able to show that the seed is suspicious, and the 

 station proves that it is bad, then his simple tester has done 

 well. 



There is a kind of seed testing which is becoming widely 

 popular, and that for the best of reasons. Not long ago it 

 was discovered that in the average corn field many hills 

 did not have the proper number of plants, and many plants 

 were bearing poorly. Frequently a field produced only sixty 

 per cent of what it should have done with the same labor. 

 This meant much waste, and the whole loss was due to poor 

 seed. 



Now much of the seed was grown by the farmers themselves. 

 It was stored, not shelled but on the ear. When it was thus 

 kept, it was easy to discover which ears were good, and which 



