132 Tlie Principles of Vegetable- Gardening 



often cracks seeds and thereby renders them almost 

 valueless. Larbaletrier asserts* that the injury from 

 the threshing machine in France, upon wheat, can 

 always be reckoned at 15 per cent of the crop. He 

 cut kernels with the pen -knife so as to represent the 

 injury from the machine, and compared their germi- 

 native power with that of sound kernels, under three 

 methods of treatment, with the following results : 



Sonnd kernels Cut kernels 



68 per cent germinated 34 per cent germinated 



99 38 



Sturtevant mutilated in various ways the kernels 

 of Waushakum Flint Corn and seeds of beans and 

 planted them under the surface of soil: 



Xo. of kernels 



or seeds No. 

 planted grew 



Corn, cut lengthwise to bisect germ 10 1 



Corn, more or less of the albumen removed . 20 12 



Corn, part of one edge removed 10 3 



Corn, small portion of chit removed, the 



embryo not being injured 10 



Bean, one cotyledon removed, germ uninjured . 20 13 



These researches, although showing that mutilated 

 seeds may grow, nevertheless prove that germination 

 is feeble and that mechanically injured seeds are 

 unreliable. 



The germinative vitality of weevil -eaten or ^M3uggy^' 

 peas is low, and the plants resulting from them are 

 usually feeble. Beal gives t the following results with 



*L8 Cocq de Lantreppe, Country Grentleman, Nov. 10, 1887, 852- 

 tRep. Mich. Bd. Agr. 1879, 195. 



