Treatment of Cotton Seed 
39 
that failure to find any difference in the amount of antliracnose on the 
treated and untreated plots in this test was due to the spread of spores of 
the anthracnose fungus from diseased to healthy plants by this insect. 
A check on the results of the field trials on the farms near Statesville 
and Rocky Mount were made by plantings in the greenhouse. Four hundred 
seeds of each treated lot and 200 untreated seeds were chosen for these 
tests. By the end of 8 days, the germination was 92 and 96 per cent 
respectively, for the treated and 92 per cent for the untreated seed. By the 
seventeenth day, the percentage of anthracnose was 2 and 6 per cent respect¬ 
ively for the treated seed and 45 per cent for the untreated. The evidence from 
field and greenhouse trials is, therefore, in accord in showing that dry 
Plate 2. The seed treating machine. Front and left end view with hood removed 
and door open. The seed drum and the shield over the heaters are shown in position. 
The position of the thermostat which is here located inside the upper left corner, has been 
changed to the upper part of the front wall where it is more directly' exposed to the hot 
air current which heats the seeds. The small condenser shown on the floor is connected 
across the points of the thermostat in order to minimize arcing and consequent clatter of 
the circuit breaker. 
heat treatment greatly reduced the amount of viable anthracnose fungus 
present in these seed without impairing germination, but that the treat¬ 
ment was not sufficiently severe to completely destroy the fungus. 
In still another test with seed of the 1922 crop, a quantity of seed was 
heated in the seed-treating machine at a temperature of 50° for 24 hours, 
then 100° C. for 12 hours. One thousand of these treated seed were planted 
in sand in flats in the greenhouse. Only 3 per cent of these seed germinated 
in 17 days making it evident that a temperature of 50° does not accomplish 
sufficient desiccation to enable the seed to withstand 100° for 12 hours. 
This result is in accord with results of tests on small lots of seed in the 
electric oven. 
