strictly forbidden and the seeds must be disinfected with Bordeaux 
mixture or some sueh disinfectant. One planter having alleged that 
such disinfection would kill the seed, M. Morange made a series of 
experiments with bichloride of mercury, and copper sulphate with 
the following result : 
I. Bichloride of Mercury I per 1,000 
A. Seeds washed after treatment Proportion of seeds 
which germinated after 3 ° days ... 7 ° 
B. Seeds not washed ... ... 68/ 
2. Bichloride 2 per 1,000 
washed ... ... 84 
not washed ... ... 90 
3. Sulphate of copper I per cent, 
washed after ... 62% 
not washed ... ... 52% 
4. Sulphate of copper 5 per cent. 
washed , ... ... 68% 
not washed ... ... 62% 
Check experiment, Seeds washed in pure water gave 78, 
and 70% germinated after 30 days 
The seeds were put in the disinfectant for half an hour. 
Except in one case there is a slight proportion of larger germina- 
tion in the washed over the unwashed seeds, and there is a fall off in 
germination in the seeds treated with copper sulphate but not a very 
large one compared with the check experiments. 
Another experiment was made by M. Belland— 400 seeds were 
plunged in water and left for half an hour; all germinated 
500 were put in a solution of I per cent, of copper sulphate for 
half an hour and continuously stirred round (brassees) ener- 
getically for half an hour. Of these qnly 38 germinated. 
500 were similarly treated with a solution of bichloride of mer- 
cury I per 1,000, only fifty four germinated. 
M. Morange made also an experiment of the same nature. 
Five hundred seeds were sown dry without washing and 285, 
i. e. 56.8 per cent, germinated in a month. 
Another lot were stirred in plain water more carefully, of these 
213. or 42. 6 per cent, germinated. 
Another lot was stirred in copper sulphate solution 2 per cent 
and 291 or 58. 2 per cent, germinated. 
A fourth lot were stirred in Bichloride of Mercury at 2 per 
1,000, of these 285 or 59 per cent. grew. 
