SEED SELECTION AND PLANTING 151 



1st. The Variety. In the selection of a va- 

 riety we must first determine whether it is suitable 

 for the locality of our soil. Its quality of pro- 

 ductiveness and ability to mature its crops in the 

 growing season. The quality of its kind and 

 feeding value, and the demand for the products it 

 produces in our particular markets. 



2d. The Quality of the Seed. By this we mean 

 that the seed must be of the variety we desire to 

 plant; sound, well matured, and of strong germ- 

 ination. While the trained eye can detect both 

 the good and the weak points in seeds, yet the 

 only safe way is to test the seed in the testing box. 



3d. The Vitality of the Seed. Seed may 

 germinate and yet be utterly worthless. Seeds- 

 men seeking to dispose of their inferior seed too 

 often insist that their seed is good because it 

 germinates well, but that is no criterion of good 

 seed. The crucible test of good seed is a vitality 

 strong enough to withstand the vicissitudes of 

 adverse conditions of soil and weather after it 

 has germinated. The seed may germinate and 

 send forth a plant so weak in vitality that it read- 

 ily succumbs to heat, cold, or other adverse con- 

 ditions that every seed and plant must encounter 

 in its growing process. The prematured seed is 

 always weak in vitality. Nature always matures 

 her seeds in the most thorough manner, and this 

 is the reason she has always perpetuated her many 

 varieties of plants when unaided by man. Man 

 goes into his fields, plucks the seeds of plants 

 before they are matured, carefully stores and 

 cares for them, and often they fail to grow and 

 reproduce in the full strength necessary. Old 



