298 - 'J^JJg Plant World. 



This lack of definiteness makes it difficult for the grower. 

 He may have what he and some of the trade consider a good 

 stock of a variety and find that another dealer does not consider 

 the variety true to name. The writer some two years ago 

 bought stock seed of a new variety of sweet peas form one of the 

 best dealers and specialists in sweet peas. From this he grew a 

 crop of seed and sold some to another dealer. In the course of 

 time a complaint was received to the effect that the seed was not 

 true to name. The whole trouble was that the two dealers did 

 not agree as to the type of this variety. It is important that the 

 grower should have clearly in mind what type he is going to 

 grow. With this type in mind he makes his selections in accord- 

 ance with the system he follows. As a rule those glowers who 

 do any selection at all confine this to a general selection of the 

 best plants in the field. There is perhaps no pedigree work 

 done at all. This requires too much time and expense, but the 

 best growers follow a system of double selection. Each year 

 they stake several plants as nearly perfect as they can find. The 

 small quantity of seed produced by these plants is sown in a sep- 

 arate block, and from this block the general seed stock for the 

 following season is taken. By this system no stocks will ever 

 become absolutely pure, but only a small number of the ' ' rogues 

 will appear every year. These are cut out before they bloom in 

 case of the vegetable seeds, and as soon as the flowers aie out 

 in case of the sweet pea seeds. 



Financially the pressure is in the direction of placing new 

 varieties on the market or of raising the standard sorts at as low 

 a cost as possible. The better growers do a certain amount of 

 selection, but there is little eflort to produce pedigree stock of 

 the better sorts. The standard of the vegetable seeds sold by 

 American dealers is much lower than it should be, but the reme- 

 dy is in the hands of the dealer and not the grower. The latter 

 must grow what his tiade demands and at a price the trade is 

 billing to pay. There are, of course, dealers who will pay a fair 

 price for good seed, but this tiade is rather limited, and any 

 grower catering exclusively to it would do. a very small business 

 indeed. For the student of plant variation there is no better 

 place than a large seed farm. The number of individuals is 



