1920.] Report ox the Treatment of Seeds. 



981 



give a successful result ; twice or possibly three times out of 

 seven times it apparently succeeds ; once out of seven times it 

 apparently does harm ; and in the remaining cases it does no 

 good. 



Possible Cause of the Succ«8te8. - It may be that the successes 

 are purely accidental ; on the other hand, the}^ may be real, 

 and the writer is inclined to think that they are. The process 

 consists of three parts : soaking the seed in a solution of certain 

 salts, submitting while still in the solution to an electric current, 

 then drying at 110° F. Xow it is well known that kiln-dried 

 barley, especially after steeping, will germinate more evenly 

 and satisfactorily than will ordinary barley. This is particu- 

 larly the case if the barley contains any amount over 14 per cent, 

 or 15 per cent, moisture, and it is also true even in a season like 

 the present when the moisture content is below the average. 

 Professor Stapledon has shown"^ that drying seed at 100° F. may 

 improve its germination, unless germination is already very 

 good. Anything that helps germination may be useful on land 

 which has been folded and left in an unfavourable condition. 

 It is possible that the drying in the treatment might be 

 -sufficient to help germination. Apparenth' in some cases the 

 electrified seed made the better start. At Wye the young 

 plants from the electrified seed, both of oats and barley, at first 

 showed greater vigour than those from untreated seed, but the 

 superiority soon vanished. This, however, is not usual : at 

 Rothamsted no such difference was seen ; in Professor 

 Stapledon's germination tests the treated seeds were not quite 

 so good as were the untreated. Xevertheless, the occasional 

 help to germination derived from one or other parts of the 

 treatment may prove of value in certain field conditions, and 

 thus lead to a better crop than would otherwise ensue. 



It is impossible to prove a negative proposition : a few un- 

 exceptional positive results outweigh anv amount of negative 

 evidence and would show that the treatment had some merit. 



The failure, however, of electrified seed to give any increase 

 in yield under the carefully controlled conditions of an experi- 

 mental station trial shows that the process lacks certainty. 

 It cannot be compared in effectiveness with manuring, which 

 succeeds nearly every time if properlv done. The writer is not 

 prepared on present e\'idence to say that the process never 

 succeeds, but the risk of failure seems so great that the farmer 

 should look upon it as an adventure which may or may not 

 prove profitable. 



♦ See this Journal, July, i»)i9, p. 364. 



