QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 163 



flufflcient preparation of the ground, unseasonable time of sowing, sowing 

 too deep or too shallow, insufficient moisture, excess of moisture, cold, 

 heat, depredations of insects under or above the surface, unfavorable 

 conditions of climate or atmosphere, deficiency or excess of natural 

 forces which we do not understand. 



The writer has been called upon to view hundreds of poor crops which Complaints 

 the gardeners have claimed to be due to the sowing of unvital seed, but**^ vitauty. 

 generally he has been able to point out to the gardeners extended pieces 

 here and there where the germination had been perfect, proving that the 

 failure in other portions was due to imperfect preparation of land or bad 

 sowing, as respects time or depth of covering, for if the seed had a vitality 

 of eighty or ninety per cent, over one foot in a hundred feet of row, it was 

 equally vital all over the patch. Another class of complaints aie from 

 those who attempt to assure the seed merchant that every one of a num- 

 ber of varieties of seeds sold were of bad vitality. These unreasonable 

 people lay down the charge most emphatically, forgetting that such a 

 wholesale condemnation contradicts itself, for no seed merchant who ever 

 filled an order would send out seeds all of which were unvital ; he might 

 make a mistake with one, but not with all. It is clearly obvious that 

 when all the seeds of an entire purchase vegetate indifferently or entirely 

 fail, the fault is in the preparation of the land, the sowing, the soil, insects 

 or the season. 



The seed merchant is frequently berated by a certain unreasoning class 

 of gardeners who lay all the blame of various failures of the seed upon 

 him, and when, on the other hand, the crops develop to unusual propor- 

 tions by reason of favorable conditions, the same class of gardeners want 

 a premium from the seed merchant for growing the best in their district. 

 No class of purchasers are so unreasonable as seed purchasers, for they 

 look for perfection in an article yet unborn. The cattle breeder knows full 

 well that young stock does not always turn out as he desires, plan he 

 never so wisely as to cross-breeding. 



The seed merchant often receives complaint that a lot of cheap seeds 

 purchased at random gave as good results as a more costly article, the 

 complainant forgetting that he cannot rely upon cheap seeds, for the fol- 

 lowing year they may be villainously bad. 



The gardener cannot manufacture vegetables or flowers, nor the farmer 

 grain or potatoes, as the mechanic makes an engine, or a shoemaker 

 a boot. The gardener has to trust to the hidden processes of nature as 

 developed by moisture, heat, chemical action and nutrition. He can only 

 help nature, and ofttimes is powerless to do that ; and when some natural 

 action fails, or he sows or transplants at an unseasonable period, he should 

 not lay the blame upon the seed merchant, unless well assured that the 

 seeds sold are positively unvital or positively untrue as to representation 

 of kind. 



922. Q. What is the difference between corns known as Gourd Seed, Com. 

 Dent and Flint ? 



