Seed Germination in Certain New Mexico Range Grasses [1]

Much work has been carried on in recent years in regard to the viability and germination of seeds of various plants. Seed-testing studies are highly important, because the results obtained influence or affect the work of the farmer, the floriculturist, the amateur gardener, and the rancher or ranger. These people cannot afford to plant seeds, expecting a 95 per cent germination and then perhaps having only a 50 per cent germination, due to poor selection of seed, to its immaturity, or to its adulteration with weed seeds. Among the plants studied for germination the grasses have a
prominent part, and this is especially true of the range grasses of the west. It is necessary for the rancher or ranger to know about what percentage of the seeds of the grasses covering his grazing lands he can expect to germinate, since he can then estimate the amount of grazing his lands will tolerate without becoming depleted. He must know whether his grasses propagate themselves vegetatively or by seed, or by both means. Various studies have been made with reference to seed germination, and although they have no direct bearing upon the problem which the writer  undertook, yet they gave ideas for some tests which were performed after the major problem was completed. The following are short summaries of the work of some of the investigators in the field of seed germination.