Apr. 5, 1924 
Effect of Modified Hot - Water Treatment on Wheat 
85 
It is noted thus far that the action of the modified hot-water treatment on 
germination may range from retardation without reduction to outright killing 
of practically 100 per cent of the seed, depending entirely upon the physical 
condition of the seed coat. In actual practice seed-coat damage results mainly 
from threshing. An indication of the amount of possible seed injury traceable 
to the modified hot-water treatment following threshing injury to seed coats 
has been obtained from 25 samples of the crop of 1922. Twenty of them came 
from Hancock, Rush, and Shelby Counties, Ind., where loose smut usually 
occurs abundantly, and where the hot-water treatment is used extensively. 
Each of the 25 seed lots consisted of both machine-threshed grain and grain in 
the head taken from the field on the day of threshing. The grain in the head 
was carefully threshed by hand. One hundred kernels of each of the 25 different 
lots of hand-threshed and of machine-threshed seed were treated simultaneously, 
on October 14,1922. The grain then was dried six days at room temperature and 
sown on October 20 in soil in greenhouse flats at Arlington Experiment Farm. 
One hundred untreated hand-threshed kernels and 100 untreated machine- 
threshed kernels of each seed lot were sown in similar flats as controls. The 
seedlings were counted on November 14, one month after sowing. The results- 
are presented in Table VII and in Plate 4. 
Table VII.— Percentages of germination of wheat showing the effects of the modified 
hot-water treatment on machine-threshed and hand-threshed seed of 25 different lots 
of seed from nine varieties as compared with untreated controls 
Percentage of germination 
Class and variety j Source 
Soft red winter wheats: 
Fultz. 
Do. 
Goens (Red chaff).. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do... 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Indiana 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
.do.. 
Leap... 
Poole.. 
Do. 
Red May (Michigan amber). 
Do. 
.do. 
.do. 
Do. 
.do.. 
Do. 
.do. 
White wheats: 
Defiance. 
Idaho. 
Dicklow. 
.do. 
Hard Federation. 
.do. 
Little Club. 
California. 
Virginia. 
Indiana. 
_do.. 
Seed lot 
Machine-threshed 
Hand-threshed 
Un¬ 
treated 
Treated 
Un¬ 
treated 
Treated 
A 
85 
61 
99 
> 
95 
B 
96 
68 
96 
95 
C 
90 
40 
98 
95 
D 
99 
71 
98 
98 
E 
89 
58 
100 
100 
F 
94 
62 
98 
99 
G 
90 
52 
99 
97 
H 
81 
49 
99 
99 
I 
88 
64 
99 
99 
J 
89 
52 
96 
96 
K 
71 
45 
99 
97 
L 
85 
55 
100 
98 
M 
90 
51 
99 
98 
N 
78 
39 
97 
97 
O 
87 
54 
97 
96 
P 
93 
64 
98 
96 
Q 
87 
45 
100 
99 
R 
93 
77 
99 
100 
S 
90 
65 
100 
96 
T 
99 
77 
99 
100 
U 
89 
61 
100 
93 
V 
91 
53 
100 
99 
W 
84 
34 
100 
97 
X 
84 
61 
82 
83 
i Y 
86 
57 
96 
99 
1 . 
i 
88.3 
56.6 
97.9 
96.8 
Average. 
