65S 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



July, 1913 



Vitality of Farm Seeds. 



An extensive series of experi- 

 ments was commenced in i8y6 with 

 a view to testing : — how long 

 under ordinary conditions of stor- 

 age the vitality of certain seeds is 

 maintained ; (2) to determine the 

 annual loss of vitality ; (3) to as- 

 certain the real value of seeds h«ld 

 o\-€r for one or two years ; and 

 (4) to investigate the rapidity of 

 germination of the seeds experi- 

 mented with. Samples of forty- 

 three kinds of seed, including 

 those of six cereals, seventeen 

 grasses, twelve clovers, six turnips 

 and allied plants, carrot and yar- 

 row, from the harvest of 1895 were 

 obtained. The samples have heen 

 stored in paper bags in the close- 



fitting drawers of a cabinet, and 

 ha\e been regularlv tested each 

 year. Full details of the results 

 are given ; the following is a brief 

 summary : — 



— Cereals. — 



In the case of barley and wheat 

 the germination was but little af- 

 fected during the first five years, 

 but thereafter a rapid loss of vi- 

 tality occurred, and proceeded at 

 an increasing rate till in the tenth 

 vear no live seeds remained. Oats 

 were quite different ; not until the 

 ninth vear was there any serious 

 loss of vitality, but by the end of 

 the fourteenth year no living seeds 

 of white oats remained. Some of 

 the black oats lived for two years 

 longer. The great vitality of 

 oats as compared with wheat or 



barley is stated to be due to the 

 l)rotettion afforded to the embryo 

 of the oat by the fact that in its 

 case the glumes which, in wheat 

 and barky, fall off as chaff, remain 

 attached to the seed. 



— Grasses. — 



The death of all these seedsi oc- 

 curred between the eighth and. the 

 thirteenth year, but there was a 

 good deal of variation as to the 

 manner in which the loss of vitali- 

 ty occurred. Some, such as tim- 

 othy and tall oat grass suffered 

 little for the first four years, 

 though after that the loss was 

 rapid ; in othiets, such as hard 

 fescue and sheep's fescue, the loss 

 was heavy and rapid until a ger- 

 mination of below 10 per .cent, had 

 been reached, but after that it 

 remained stationary for a year or 

 two. Still others, such as 

 Italian rye grass and meadow fes- 

 cue,, showed a fairlj^ steady decline 

 from first to last. 



— Clovers. — 



Of the three true clovers, all the 

 seeds of red were dead in eleven 

 years ; alsike and white showed a 

 small percentage of germmating 

 seeds in the eleventh vear. Sain- 

 foin was shorter lived and lucerne 

 survived two years longer. Oni the 

 whole the clovers lose little during 

 the first three or four vears, then 

 there is a rapid loss for another 

 four ^•ears, and finally the last lo 

 per cent, of germ-inating power is 

 only slowly lost during the space 

 of another three or four years. 



— Turnips and Allied, Plants. — 



The special feature of this group 

 was the remarkable drop in the 

 germination during the tenth 

 year. 



— liiapidity of Germination. — 

 ln» these experiments records 

 were also kept to ascertain the 

 rapidity of germination, a charac- 

 ter in which seeds differ greatly. 

 In the first year eleven kinds of 

 seeds completed their germination 

 within a week, viz., barley, white 

 oa1.s, meadow fescue, timothy, 

 white clover, sainfoin, swedes (2), 

 turnips (2), and rape. On the 

 whole, as the seeds became older 

 the time required for germination 

 increased, though it was noticeable 

 that in the case of the five .seeds — 

 smooth-stalked meadow grass, 

 wood meadow grass, cocksfoot, 

 sweet vernal, and sheep's fescue 

 — which were specially slow in ger- 

 minating, every one showed more 

 rapid germination in the second 

 year than in the first, and in three 

 of th'ctn it was more rapid still 

 in the third year. — Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture. 



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