Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 695 
cells containing' the starch. These compounds, when the seed 
begins to germinate, supply the protoplasm, or active living 
portion of the cells, to the young plants. The life of the nitro- 
genous compounds is destroyed by coagulation, and though the 
constituents of the seed may appear on the most careful investi- 
gation to be present, this change would entirely destroy the 
germination. 
" It would be dangerous to raise the temperature of corn- 
stalks to 127° Fahr. For though the coagulation of the nitro- 
genous compounds may not take place below that point, a 
considerably lower temperature has an influence on the seed, 
for the seeds of wheat will not germinate if the temperature is 
raised to 104° Fahr. 
" In the view of those facts, it appears to me that no injury 
should result to a corn-stack if the temperature is never allowed 
to exceed 100° Fahr.— W. C." 
In order to obtain accurate observations of the heat in the 
trial corn-stacks, the Judges obtained some self-registering 
thermometers from Messrs. Negretti and Zambra, and their 
technical description of these instruments is as follows : — 
Negretti and Zambra s Self-Begistering Maximum Thermometer for 
use in May Stacks. Price 10s. 6d. 
" This thermometer consists of a tube of mercuiy with the degrees engraved 
upon it. Above the mercury the tube is free from air, and just above the 
bulb is inserted a small piece of glass which acts as a valve. When the 
mercury has once passed through the valve and has risen in the tube, the 
upper end of the column registers the maximum temperature. To remove 
this mercury to the bulb it is necessary to swing the thermometer bulb-end 
downwards, when the column of mercury in the tube •will unite with that in 
the bulb. The thermometer is inclosed in a sheath of glass so as to protect 
the division, and the whole is secured into a brass jacket having a slit the 
whole length of the range of degrees. This jacket is perforated at the bulb, so 
that the air may have free access to the mercury." 
These thermometers were found to answer their purpose, but 
they are rather fragile, and in the hands of a labourer who has 
no great nicety of touch they soon come to grief. 
In preparation for stacking the barley, circular staddles of 
24 feet diameter had been laid out, and the exhibitors had put 
in their flues, and, where required, damper-boxes, 
Mr. Coultas had, as before in the hay trials, laid in the 
ground glazed and socketed sewage-pipes, 9 inches in diameter 
and 2 feet long. A bend at each end, rising 6 inches above the 
ground, connected this flue with the central shaft and the fan. 
The cost of these pipes was 11.9. Qd. for each stack. The fan 
k was placed between the two stacks, and the side inlets were 
i connected by sheet-iron tubes with the flues. The dampers in 
the fan case enabled this exhibitor to dispense with damper- 
