GERMINATING POWER OF SEEDS. (Contributed.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 8

GERMINATING POWER OF SEEDS. (Contributed.)

Writing about 1660 a farmer said the best seed is the most weighty, and is got from the most vigorous stem. True now as then. The seed-wheat of the greatest density produce? the densest seed, and the densest seed produces the greatest amount of dressed corn. Light or dwarfed seeds sprout quicker, but yield weakoi plants, and in addition are not -o sure of germination as heavy seeds, the number of roots and the strength of plants being in proportion to the amount of starch in the seeds whence they have sprung. Ripe .••eed is usually denser than unripe seed. The smaller density of unripe seed is owing to the imperfect or entire want of development of the embryo — the essential part of the seed consisting of the radicle, cotyledon, etc. The weight of the grain is quickly affected by climate. Of 54- varieties sowed near Paris, obtained from the .south of France and from the Blac'c Sea, 52 yielded seed from 10 to 40 per cent, heavier than the parent seed. The heavier grain sent back tc the south of France yielded lighter seed. In Canada the first settlors found their winters too severe for winter wheat brought from France, and their summers too short for summer wheat, until they procured summer wheat from the northern parts of Europe, which succeeded very well. An experiment was tried of towing winter wheat in spring, and out of 100 plants four alone produced ripe seeds. These were sown and resown, and in three years plants were reared which ripened all their seed.

Much has been written about the vitality of seeds, the late Miss Ormorod denying the possibility of mummy wheat RCiminating. Modern experiments with the seeds of cereals thow that they lose their vitality after 10 years at moit, and usually much sooner. Those of leguminous plants may survive for a much longer period. Rye, and wheat seed over 100 years old could not be induced to germinate, the place of Hip embryo bcint, occupied by a slimy putrefying fluid. On flip other hand, seeds of the bean and pea nave- spiouied after 100 years' storage in a herbarium. Grains of wheat usually lose their power of growth aitcr a lap;e of seven veai.-;, though wheat c\.'i *.• o centuries old has been found quite capable of beting u=ed for food. Although tlio stories of mummy wheat hproutir.g after Inning lain dormant in Egyptian tombs for thousands of years ha\e been lidiculcd by Miss Ormclod, .Sir Gardner Wilkison experimented on sumc wheat taken from alabaster vases, where it haci '■omni' ~1 for 3000 years In 18 J 0 a few of the-e grains wore planted in AH awn £4*j-lfcft &t Aiuurvj nc-ar GuxldloitL

and there flourished. The increase of the wheat was very great, the ears averaging 7in long and from 15 to 20 ears in eachi /root springing from one grain. It was "bearded," and resembled that which is sometimes called by farmers *' Egyptian wheat." Mr Tupper, of Albury, who first sowed this antique wheat, believed his plant of wheat to be the product of a grain preserved since the time of the Pharoahs, and that me moderns may thus eat bread made of corn which Joseph might have reasonably thought to have stored in his granaries. The wisdom of God is strikingly shown in the stalk of the Egyptian wheat: if it was hollow and weak like common corn, it would break with the weight ; but jt is solidly filled with a sort of pith, and thus rendered sufficiently firm.

Interesting, too, is the effect of extreme heat or cold on the vitality of seeds. Cereals immersed in sand and earth heated to 104deg Fahr. sprouted. Cocoanut germinates in soil heated to 81deg, but cereals won't stand it long, which proves clearly how it is that many plants cannot be multiplied by seeds in hot countries, where the temperature of the soil is often as high as 140deg. Some wheat which had been left by the United States Polaris Expedition in the upper reaches of Smith's Sound was brought to England by Sir George Nares, and found to germinate freely, though during the interval it must have been exposed Ito a cold on one occasion at least of 75deg below zero. The same variety of wheat grown in the open fields in Alsace and in the Botanic Garden of Paris gave: — Grown in the Botanic Garden, 26.7 of gluten ; grown in open fields, 17.3 of gluten.

In the following figures is also shown the influence of variety of seed: — Cape wheat, 20.6 per cent, gluten in the flour; barrel wheat, 27.7 per cent, do do; winter wheats 33.0 do do ; Russian wheat, 24-.8 do do. Flour in the grain: — Cape, 81 per cent.; barrel, 78 per cent. ; winter wheat, 62 per cent. ; Russian, 82 per cent.