DR. W. J. DEAL'S SEED-VIABILITY EXPERIMENT 
H. T. Darlington 
(Received for publication September 22, 192 1) 
In the autumn of 1879, Dr. Beal began an experiment to test the viabihty 
of the seeds of some of the more common plants growing in the vicinity of 
the Agricultural College at East Lansing, Michigan. Most of the seeds 
were those of common weeds. The first account of the experiment appeared 
in the Botanical Gazette for August, 1905. This gave the results for the 
first twenty-five years. In the 17th Report of the Michigan Academy of 
Science (1915) the results were published up to the fall of 1914. 
The nature of the experiment is best indicated by Dr. Beal himself, 
from whom I quote. He says: 
I selected fifty freshly grown seeds from each of twenty-three different kinds of plants. 
Twenty such lots were prepared with the view of testing them at different times in the 
future. Each lot or set of seeds was well mixed in moderately moist sand, just as it was 
taken three feet below the surface, where the land had never been plowed. The seeds of 
each set were well mixed with the sand and placed in a pint bottle, the bottle being filled 
and left uncorked, and placed with the mouth slanting downwards so that the water could 
not accumulate about the seeds. These bottles were buried on a sandy knoll in a roAV 
running east and west and placed fifteen paces northwest from the west end of the big 
stone set by the class of 1873. A boulder stone, barely even with the surface soil, was set 
at each end of the row of bottles, which were buried about 20 inches below the surface of 
the ground. 
As table 2 shows, a bottle containing a set of seeds has been dug up every 
five years and tested for germination. Results are now at hand for forty 
years, and there are still twelve sets buried, or enough to last sixty more 
years if the same rate of testing is followed. Dr. E. A. Bessey, under 
whose direction the last two tests have been made, has suggested that the 
interval of testing be lengthened to ten years, thus increasing by sixty 
years the duration of the experiment. 
Dr. Beal made all the tests up to and including 1909, the thirtieth year. 
The tests fall due in the fall, and the 1914 test was made at that time. 
The last test, however, was made in the spring of 1920, because the test 
had been delayed until the ground had frozen so hard as to make it im- 
possible to dig up a bottle. The rather unusual results of the last test, 
however, have suggested that the wintering-over due to this delay has 
been rather fortunate than otherwise. The showing made was much better 
than that of 1914. Several factors may have contributed to this. 
The method of testing the last time, which was essentially that of 1914, 
was as follows: The equipment consisted of two flats about i8x2ox2| 
inches deep. These were nearly filled with rich sifted loam, sterilized at 
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