68 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



the more Southern counties of the State, where crops ma- 

 ture ten or twelve clays earlier, but the distance greater 

 from market, the bulkier and cheaper articles are not 

 grown, and only the more portable and (when early) valu- 

 able kinds are raised, of which Tomatoes, Melons, Peas, 

 Kidney Beans, Early Turnips, and Beets, are the staple 

 articles. There, also, the growers know well the necessity 

 of sowing only such seeds as are grown by themselves, or 

 from sources that they know to be reliable. 



Seed growing, as practised by market gardeners, is on 

 much too small a scale to make it profitable ; in fact, there 

 is hardly a seed we raise, but costs us much more than what 

 w T e could purchase it for from the seedsmen. Seedsmen are 

 supplied by regular seed growers, who make a special 

 business of it ; they are located principally in the East- 

 ern States, and devote .many thousands of acres of the 

 finest lands to the purpose. They are a highly responsi- 

 ble class of men, who thoroughly understand the business, 

 and are now successfully competing with the English and 

 French growers, from whom, only a few years ago, nearly 

 all our seeds were imported. Just so soon as our seeds- 

 men are able to get their entire supply from reliable men 

 here, there will be no necessity for the market gardeners 

 continuing to be their own seed growers ; they would also 

 greatly conduce to the increase of their business by taking 

 the trouble to ascertain the varieties most suitable for 

 market purposes. Above all, no seed should ever be sold 

 without its germinating qualities being thoroughly tested. 

 Neither should any gardener risk his crop without testing 

 the seed, unless he has implicit confidence in the source 

 from whence it has been purchased. 



