CHAPTER II . 

 THE SAVING OF SEED 



ONE of the most important things in gardening is to have 

 good seed. This is because good plants cannot come from 

 poor seed, and because it is scarcely worth while to labor over 

 poor plants, 



A hundred years ago almost ? ^ry gardener and farmer 

 saved his own seed. No^.^aa^s the growing of seed is a 

 business in itself. It is a work of great care, and most people 

 find it simpler and cheaper to buy seed than to grow it. 



Nevertheless, nearly every one can profitably save some 

 seed. It is so easy to pay a few cents for a packet of seed 

 that we do not recollect that with certain kinds it is cheaper 

 to save than to buy. People are said to be wasteful nowa- 

 days : here is a chance to be thrifty. Again, by watching 

 for especially fine plants, we may be able to save a little finer 

 seed than we can buy. And finally, by saving seed of the 

 same kind for a few years we may develop plants which will 

 do better in our district than any that can be obtained at the 

 store. These are three very good reasons, then, for saving 

 certain kinds of seed. 



I do not mean that we should try to make, that is, to 

 breed, new kinds of plants. That is a difficult work. The 

 plant-breeder crosses two kinds of plants ; that is, he brings 

 the pollen of one to the pistil of another. The parent plants 

 he chooses for the qualities (color, shape, size, flavor) which 

 he wishes to mix together in the new plants. He saves the 



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