bottles about three seeds deep;
cork the bottles. If you cannot find corks, tie paper over the mouths
of the bottles. Label the bottles "Seeds soaked 24 hours," "Seeds
soaked 2 hours," and let them stand in a warm place several days. If
there is danger of freezing at night, the bottles of seeds may be kept
in the kitchen or living room where it is warm, until they sprout.

Observe the seeds from day to day. The seeds that soaked twenty-four
hours will sprout readily (Fig. 36), while most, if not all, of those
that soaked only two hours will not sprout. Why is this? It is because
the two-hour soaked seeds do not receive sufficient moisture to carry
on the process of sprouting.

Our experiment teaches us that seeds will not sprout until they
receive enough moisture to soak them through and through.

This also teaches that when we plant seeds we must so prepare the soil
for them and so plant them that they will be able to get sufficient
moisture to sprout.

=Experiment.=--Soak some beans, peas or corn, twenty-four hours;
carefully dry them with a cloth. In one half-pint bottle place enough
of them to cover the bottom of the bottle two or three seeds deep;
mark this bottle A. Fill another bottle two-thirds full of them and
mark the bottle B (Fig. 37). Cork the bottles and let them stand for
several days. Also let some seeds remain soaking in the water. The few
seeds in bottle A will sprout, while, the larger number in bottle B
will not sprout, or will produce only very short sprouts. Why do not
the seeds sprout easily in the bottle which is more than half full?

To answer this question try the following experiment:

=Experiment.=--Carefully loosen the cork in bottle B (the bottle
containing poorly sprouted seeds), light a match, remove the cork from
the bottle and introduce the lighted match. The match will stop
burning as soon as it is held in the bottle, because there is no fresh
air in the bottle to keep the match burning. Test bottle A in the same
way. What has become of the fresh air that was in the bottles when the
seeds were put in them? The seeds have taken something from it and
have left bad air in its place; they need fresh air to help them
sprout, but they have not sprouted so well in bottle B because there
was not fresh air enough for so many seeds. The seeds in the water do
not sprout because there is not enough air in the water. Now try
another experiment.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.
To show that seeds