TAKING SEEDS’ TEMPERATURES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18073, 11 January 1921, Page 3

TAKING SEEDS’ TEMPERATURES

Recent tests have shown that often fully fort;- per cent, of the seed sown by farmers and gardeners is useless. Another series of tests, carried out over a thousand cornfields, proved that bad seed was responsible for the harvest yielding a third less than the ground’s real capacity Even a thoroughly experienced man cannot tell live from dead seed just by handling it. Hence science is coming to the farmers’ aid. It has been found that each kind of seed, like human beings and animals has a normal temperature. The farmer forwards a sample of the seed he proposes to sow to the laboratory. This is placed, with distilled water, in a thermos flash. At the end of forty-eight hours a certain temperature should be registered in the flash according to the kind of seed. If the seed is weevily or bacteriainfected. a temperature above the normal will result; if dead or old the low vitality will cause a sub-normal temperature. The same test has also been applied successfully to wheat intended for the flour-mill. It is a good safeguard to health, for it detects the presence of bacteria, fungus and insects that would otherwise ultimately be present in the loaf of bread.