January: Fourth Week 



VEGETABLE SEEDS TO ORDER FOR THE 

 SUMMER SEASON 



The most absorbing garden job of the year if it is true 

 that anticipation is more intense than realization is one 

 that will not take you out of your easy-chair. But more 

 than likely it will upset your ease of mind. Probably by the 

 time you had finished last season's work you thought you 

 knew exactly what you were going to want in this year's 

 garden. So you take up your pencil and paper and cat- 

 alogues with a serene feeling that you know just what you 

 are going to order in the way of vegetables, flowers, roses, 

 bulbs and small fruits. But by the time you have looked 

 through the second new catalogue, have read the testimo- 

 nials about the sterling qualities of some of the things you 

 had decided to discard and have been unable to find any 

 mention of the fine new things recommended by your 

 friends, you will be as much at sea as ever. 



As a matter of fact this whole problem of varieties is 

 given an amount of time and worry entirely out of propor- 

 tion to its real importance. A wonderful new bean or cu- 

 cumber that you admired in a friend's garden was probably 

 the same thing, under a different name, that you had in 

 your own, only your friend had been able to give it condi- 

 tions that were better adapted. The hours spent in puzzling 

 over varieties could be employed to greater advantage in 

 studying the problems of making the garden soil more 

 productive; and the money spent for wonderful new vari- 

 eties could better be used in buying up-to-date tools. 



Our catalogues are littered with scores of fictitious vari- 

 eties and strains. It is high time that our seedsmen in- 

 augurated a movement to standardize varieties. Guard 



21 



