17 
seed treated with water was sown beside that treated with copper, the 
former being used:as a check lot. 
A seed was considered as having germinated when its plumule 
appeared above the sand of the bed. All such were counted every 
day until the tenth day after treatment, and again on the fifteenth day, 
when the germination test was considered at an end. All the records 
were reduced to percentages and tabulated, and in this way the effect 
of the treatment on germination could be readily seen. Germination 
began the third day after planting, hence the record in the table begins 
from the third day. The presence of the chemical was apparent in the 
color of all seed soaked for thirty minutes or more in strengths exceed- 
ing 1 per cent, as well as in solutions of less strength when treated for 
more than one hour. 
In order to test the amount of copper deposited on the oats, seeds were 
treated for one hour with a 1 per cent solution, after which they were 
thoroughly air-dried. They were then placed in distilled water, where 
they were allowed to remain for fifteen minutes, after which the solu- 
tion was tested for copper. With ammonia a perceptible bluish color 
was noticed, while the potassium ferrocyanide test showed quite a 
distinct discoloration. 
The amount of moisture taken up by oats during the process of 
imbibition was ascertained on account of the practical bearing it has on 
the use of the fungicide where large quantities of seed are to be treated. 
One ounce of seed was soaked for one hour in a1 per cent solution of 
copper sulphate. During that time the seed took up 16 ec. ¢. of the 
solution, and at the end of twenty-four hours it had taken up 24 c. ¢.; 
in other words, 66.7 per cent of the moisture taken up by the oats was 
absorbed during the first hour. At this rate 8.67 quarts of liquid 
would be taken up by each bushel of oats during the first hour of 
treatment. The solution remaining after the oats had been soaked was 
found to be stronger than it was at the beginning of the experiment, 
proportionally more of the water having been taken up than of the 
copper sulphate, indicating that the same solution can not be used 
over and over again where it is desired to treat seed with a definite 
strength of the solution. 
1587—No. 10 2 
