1 6 ONION-RAISING. 



seed that was sown, though sown by farmers who had them- 

 selves raised it, failed to vegetate. 



Nevertheless, some seasons' seed that is two years old is 

 more reliable than that one year old. This happens when 

 the new seed is unusually light, and the old seed was unusu- 

 ally heavy. My careful test, made in various ways, of the 

 seed grown by me in 1886, and that raised the past season 

 (1887), has demonstrated in every instance, under the same 

 sinking and winnowing, that the old seed is from ten to 

 twenty per cent better than the new. There are two special 

 risks incidental to the sinking-test : first, the danger that the 

 seed will not be thoroughly dried, as onion-seed, when con- 

 taining sufficient moisture to cause it to sprout if stored in 

 bulk, appears dry to the eye ; again, the vitality of onion- 

 seed is very apt to be hurt in the drying of it, particularly 

 so as it is usually deferred until just previous to planting, 

 when matters are greatly hurried (as the risk of injury 

 through this process is considered too great to permit it to 

 be sunk earlier in the season) ; and then it is likely to be 

 exposed too near the kitchen-stove. The best way to deter- 

 mine whether or not the sunk seed is thoroughly dry, is to 

 keep testing a given measure by weighing it : when it ceases 

 to lose weight, it is dry. The only reliable test for the vital- 

 ity of any variety of seed is that which includes all the usual 

 conditions of growth. Testing by planting in a hot-house 

 or in a box in a common house is not fully reliable, because 

 the seed are not surrounded by the conditions of natural 

 growth ; they then have a temperature very mild and very 

 nearly constant, with no excess of moisture or dryness : 

 whereas the natural condition of vegetation includes the very 

 varying temperature of early spring, usually a great excess of 

 moisture and a low degree of heat, all of which causes, 



