MARKETING COTTON SEED FOR PLANTING PURPOSES. 19 
aging 82.5 per cent. Twenty-one of the samples tested 90 per cent or 
over, averaging 92 per cent; 28 tested 80 to 89 per cent, inclusive, 
averaging 85.7 per cent ; these 49 samples tested 80 per cent or above, 
averaging 88.4 per cent, while the remaining 21 samples (30 per cent of 
the total) germinated less than 80 per cent, with the low average of 68.8 
per cent. The 1920 crop samples tested averaged 85.3 per cent, or 2.8 
per cent higher than those of the 1919 crop. This was to be expected 
because of the more favorable weather generally for harvesting the 
1920 crop. However, of the 89 samples submitted, 17, or nearly one- 
fifth of the total, germinated less than 80 per cent, with the same 
low average of 68.8 per cent. If germination be used as the basis 
of values, the 1919 crop lots testing 80 per cent and over, averaging 
88.4 per cent, are worth 28.5 per cent more, and the 1920 crop lots 
testing 80 and over, averaging 89.1 per cent, are worth 29.5 per cent 
more than those testing less than 80 per cent and averaging only 68.8 
per cent. 
CAUSES OF LOW GERMINATION. 
Low germination may be caused by unfavorable weather condi- 
tions, delay in harvesting, and heating in storage. A severe drought 
during August and September usually results in immature or unde- 
veloped seed of low viability. Wet weather, extending over a period 
of a week or more, causes more or less damage to the germination 
of the seed by the continued presence of excessive moisture in the 
bolls. Tests are on record 8 of seed from cotton harvested after a 
long rainy season which averaged only 55 per cent germination and 
which ran as low as 29 per cent. Also tests 9 of seed from cotton 
harvested in the early fall months showed an average of 90 per cent 
germination, while that from mature cotton harvested in January 
averaged only 43 per cent, and from frosted cotton harvested during 
the same month only 14 per cent germination. 
MAKING TESTS. 
One or more representative samples of each lot of seed should be 
taken at the time of sacking, and marked with the lot number, for 
use in making germination tests. The sample should contain at least 
1 ounce of seeds, about 300, in order that duplicate tests, using 100 
seeds in each, may be made and a part of the sample retained for 
check. If there is any probability that a lot of seed has become dam- 
aged, from any cause, prior to harvesting and ginning, such seed 
should be tested as soon as ginned or delinted, and held in bulk pend- 
ing the results of the germination test before being recleaned and 
sacked. With the possible exception of cases where there may be a 
shortage of high germinable seed of a particular variety, there is no 
8 Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Circular 22 : Testing Cotton Seed for Ger- 
mination. 
•Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Circular 37 : Cotton Seed for Planting 
Purposes. 
