did not sprout (see Fig. 38). In answer to the question, "Why is
this?" some will say the seeds were bad. It often happens on the farm
that the seeds do not sprout well and the farmer accuses the seedsman
of selling him poor seed, but does not think that he himself may be
the cause of the failure by not putting the seeds under the proper
conditions for sprouting. How can we tell whether or not our seeds
will sprout if properly planted? We can test them by putting a number
of seeds from each package under proper conditions of moisture, heat
and air, as follows:

For large seeds take two plates (see Fig. 39) and a piece of cloth as
wide as the bottom of the plate and twice as long. Count out fifty or
one hundred seeds from a package, wet the cloth and wring it out.
Place one end of the cloth on the plate, place the seeds on the cloth
and fold the other end of the cloth over them. On a slip of paper mark
the number of seeds and date, and place on the edge of the plate. Now
cover the whole with another plate, or with a pane of glass to keep
from drying. Set the plate of seeds in a warm room and examine
occasionally for several days. If the cloth tends to dry, moisten it
from time to time. As the seeds sprout take them out and keep a record
of them. Or leave them in the plate and after four or five days count
those that have sprouted. This will give the proportion of good seeds
in the packages.

For small seeds fold the cloth first and place the seeds on top of it.

Another good tester for small seeds is made by running about an inch
of freshly mixed plaster of Paris into a small dish or pan and
moulding flat cavities in the surface by setting bottles into it. The
dish or pan and bottles should be slightly greased to prevent the