132 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



tables usually represent extreme average longevity. The vigor of the seed — as expressed in crop-pro- 

 ducing power — may decline long before it ceases to retain life. Fresh seed is therefore safest ; although 

 certain seeds of the melon family are said to produce better crops when a year old. 



Longevity of Certain Seeds. 

 The asterisk (*) denotes that the seeds had not all lost their germinating power at the termination of the number 



of years recorded. 



Average 

 years 



Barley 3 



Bean 3 



Beets 6 



Buckwheat 2 



Cabbage 5 



Carrot, with the spines . . . 4 or 5 

 Carrot, without the spines . 4 or 5 



Chicory 8 



Chick-pea 3 



Clover 3 



Flax 2 



Hop 2 



Lentil 4 



Maize 2 



Millet 2 



Extreme 

 years 



8 

 10 



10 

 10* 

 10* 

 10* 

 8 



Mustard . . . 



Oats . . . . 

 Orchard-grass 



Parsnip . . . 



Peanut . . . 



Peas . . . . 



Pumpkin . . . 



Rape . . . . 



Eye . . . . 



Soybean . . . 



Squash . . . 



Timothy . . . 



Turnip . . . 



Wheat . . . 



Habeelandt's Figures op Longevity (Quoted in Johnson's "How Crops Grow"). 

 Percentage of seeds that germinated in 1861 from the years 



1850 1851 1854 1855 1857 1858 1859 1860 



Barley 24 48 33 92 89 



Maize not tried 76 56 not tried 77 100 97 



Oats 60 56 48 72 32 80 96 



Bye 48 100 



Wheat 8 4 73 60 84 96 



Experience and experiment have determined certain seed standards. The following standards of 

 purity and germination in seeds are recommended by the Department of Agriculture : " The term 

 ■purity, the percentage of which is reckoned by weight, denotes freedom from foreign matter, such as 

 chaff, dirt, or seeds of other plants, but it has no reference to the genuineness of the variety, which is 



called by seedsmen purity of stock. The percentage of germination is 

 reckoned by count from a sample freed from foreign matter, a seed 

 being considered as having germinated when the rootlet, or radicle, 

 has pushed through the seed-coat. It is not to be understood from 

 these standards that the real value of a quantity of seed is dependent 

 wholly upon the number of pure germinable seeds it contains. The 

 ancestry of the seed and its trueness to type are factors of pri- 

 mary importance in determining seed value, especially in the case of 

 vegetables. These points, however, are very difficultj if not impossi- 

 ble, to determine at the time of purchase, while the purity and germi- 

 nation are easily ascertained and are very essential points. The 

 germination standards are based upon tests conducted between moist 

 blotters in a germinating chamber. Such tests usually give a little 

 higher result than those made in soil. For the best results in blotter 

 tests of lettuce and beets the seed should first be soaked in water for 

 from four to six hours." 



The following table showing percentages of the purity and the 

 germination of leading agricultural seeds of high grade is prepared 

 Fig. 191. Millet's seed-sower. f^^ ^yg t^^^^ ^y J. W. T. Duvel, of the Seed Laboratory of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. These figures represent what may be considered a high average for 

 such seeds, but not the maximum, even of commercial seeds. While the figures are only tentative and 

 subject to change, it should be stated that they are the result of all the information available at the 

 present time, including nearly fifty thousand germination tests conducted in the seed laboratory of tho 

 Department of Agriculture. 



