470 



THE GAKDEIT AND ITS FEUITS. 



[Chap. V. 



SECTION XXX.-GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 



^3^ITE plan of treating lightly a great variety of sub- 

 ?«>^^ jeets M'ill not warrant ns in giving a complete 

 "Young Gardener's Assistant." That can be 

 bought in a separate volume, and it is a valuable book. 

 But we shall give a little information al)out all the 

 principal kinds of culinary vegetables usually cultivat- 

 ed by farmers, or which should bo cultivated by them, 

 ■which we trust will be found useful. In treating upon 

 some of the same tilings under field-culture, in the chapter 

 devoted to " The Farm and Its Crops," we shall probably 

 give some further information, which may be useful to 

 those who only plant a garden. And so will what we say 

 here be useful to those who wish to grow vegetables upon 

 a large, as well as upon a small, scale. 

 520. The Brassica Family— Propagating aud Saving Seed. — This family of 

 plants, M-hich includes all that are near enough related to the cabbage to 

 hybridize with it, is the most universally cultivated of any variety of culi- 

 nary vegetables. In planting out cabl)agc, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips for 

 seed, great care shoiild be taken to set each kind by itself, at considerable 

 distances apart, to prevent hybridization, and no seedsman must keep bees, 

 for they are the greatest hybridizers in nature, carrying the pollen from one 

 blossom to another, and mixing the two together indiscriminately. All tlie 

 different varieties of cabbage, such as Flat Dutch, Savoy, Drumhead, mix 

 very readily and spoil each variety, or else by one chance in a score of 

 millions, produce a new variety which may be worth cultivation. As a 

 general rule, however, all farmers who raise their own seed should try to 

 keep the varieties separate. This may be done in most cases by setting out 

 the seed-stalks in different fields. It is not necessary to confine them to the 

 garden. "Wliere there is any great inconvenience about keeping the sorts 

 apart, you had better plant only one sort for seed, and buy seed for all 

 other sorts you may wish to cultivate. Do not try to grow your own seed, 

 if it will cost you twice as much as it would to buy a small paper of a pro- 

 fessional seedsman. The principal advantage in growing your own seed is 

 to select carefully the very best and throw away all others, and unless you 

 do that, you had better not grow any. To grow good cabliage and turnip 

 seed, select the very best roots to plant, and then select the best seed 

 branches. 



A correspondent wants to know if turnip seed, harvestea from roots 

 tliat were left out over winter, will produce good turnips if sown for a 



