19.3. Small Data Sets

These data sets have been picked up from Datasets from the book: A Handbook of Small Data Sets .

19.3.1. Germinating Seeds

This dataset studies the effect of different amounts of water on germination of seeds.

• There are two experiments: one with covered boxes and one with uncovered boxes.
• Each experiment has four boxes.
• There are six levels of water (coded as level 1 to 6).
• Each box starts with 100 seeds.
• At the end of the experiment, the number of seeds germinating in the box.
• The columns in the data set represent water levels.
• The rows represent the box numbers.
• First four rows capture the results on uncovered boxes.
• Second four rows capture the results on covered boxes.
• One entry is missing in last row.

Following code shows how to read the data:

read.germinating.seeds <- function(){
    df <- read.table('germin.dat', na.strings = '*')
    dfa <- df[1:4, ]
    dfb <- df[5:8, ]
    list(
        starting.seeds=100,
        uncovered.box.germination.data=dfa,
        covered.box.germination.data=dfb,
        water.levels=factor(1:6),
        boxes=factor(1:4)
        )
}