xiv PREFACE 



ounce of seed if a packet will do the work ; and it is ex- 

 asperating to spend time in thinning what never should 

 have been sown. A "good stand 1 ' of anything makes 

 troublesome thinning; while in the case of - asparagus, 

 unless early and savagely thinned, extermination of the 

 superfluous plants is impossible without digging out 

 their crowns. 



I suppose I need hardly say that seed should be 

 fresh, and bought of a reliable dealer. If a gardener 

 wishes to sow old seed, he should first test its viability. 

 The simplest method is to lay a given number of seed 

 between moist cloths, in a tin bdx or between two 

 dinner-plates laid edge to edge ; the percentage of ger- 

 mination is thus easily found. 



As for the dealer, there is no excuse for not buying 

 of one of the many reputable city houses, all of which 

 prepay mail charges on seed ordered by the ounce or 

 packet. Grocery-store seed is too often old and poor. 



It would be of value if I could give here the number 

 of feet of drill that an ounce of a given seed will sow, 

 or the number of plants that an ounce will produce, 

 but this subject has never, so far as I have found, been 

 reliably and extensively tested. Seedsmen's statements 

 on this point are (as I learn from the experiments of 

 Professor Bailey, and from my own experience) merely 

 guesses on the safe side. One ounce of the seed of corn- 

 salad, often quoted as enough for fifty feet of row, is 

 really, if good weight, enough for at least two hundred 



