242 TnE_FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



time tends to improve the A'aluc of property in the snrrounding neighbour- 

 hood. It is expected Ihat a garden superintendent will shortlj' be ap- 

 pointed, and that preliminary operations on the ground will be commenced 

 forthwith. Already many trees likely to bear removal from Chiswick 

 have had their roots cut back to prepare them for lifting; and all the 

 public have to do with the matter is to supply the money, discuss the 

 merits of the plan, and wait patiently for its accomplishment. 



A correspondent desires information respecting the frequent appear- 

 ance in seedsmen's windows of little pots filled with soil, and all carefully 

 tallied, which are removed and replaced l)}^ others as soon as the seeds 

 sown in them are fairly sprouted. He has also seen small Wardian cases 

 sown over with what looked like mustard or rajie, and wondered why 

 Buch things should be grown there, especially as they appear to have no 

 further attention bej^ond getting them into the seed-leaf. In reply, we 

 inform him and others that the little pots and the Wardian cases are 

 ready means adopted by seedsmen by which to ascertain if samples of 

 seeds they have purchased, or may be about to purchase, are alive or 

 dead ; and their reason for doing so will be fully imderstood from the 

 following observations : — 



The seed trade may be said to commence its season about this time, 

 and as February approaches the bustle will be at its height. At present 

 private purchasers are in no haste to send orders to the seedsman, but 

 that does not prevent him getting ready for the rush that will be made 

 upon him from the beginning of February to the end of March. It would 

 form a curious chapter in the history of trade to unravel all the secrets of 

 the craft, and they ought to be unravelled, for the public paj^ a high 

 price for the secresy in which they are enshrouded. Fraiuls upon the 

 public are of two kinds, namely, the selling of good seed under false 

 names, and the selling of dead seed to increase bulk. All but the com- 

 monest and cheapest seeds are liable to be sent out mixed with sorts of 

 inferior value. The grower may have set his heart upon a crop of early 

 peas, and from a good list have selected sorts for the purpose. He is 

 prepared to pay an extra price for what he supposes to be of extra value, 

 but by and by he discovers that his pet crop is no better than, older and 

 cheapor sorts with which he has long been acquainted. The secret of it 

 is that he never had the sorts he paid for ; the labels on the bags were 

 lies — the seedsman cheated him. There are men in the trade who never 

 scruple to take half-a-dozen kinds of peas from one and the same bin, Avho 

 will get a dozen kinds of cabbage from the same drawer, and charge a 

 different price for each ; and as' for old, lifeless seed, a bit of new is mixed 

 up witli it, and the grower, finding that what does come up is true, con- 

 cludes that the rest perished through his own mismanagement. We know 

 a case in which a person sent to a dealer, whose name we could give, for 

 a supply of potato sets. The person who made the purchase complained 

 that they were " very small." " Oh, never mind," says he, " put in two 

 instead of one." It is the buyer's fault when impudence and imposition 

 go together openly in such a way, but it is rather hard upon the buyer 

 if he pays a high price for seed that has been previously steamed or baked 

 on purpose to kill it. Strange as it may seem to many, there are ovens 

 always hot and boilers always at work expressly to hiU seed for the benefit 



