% OF PROPAGATION".' SECT. V* 



Seed of vegetables should be saved from fine for- 

 ward plants, secured from rocking about ; when they 

 get tall ; guard them against birds, gather them re- 

 gularly as they ripen, lest they shed and are lost, and 

 keep them dry. Flowers, it may be proper to save 

 the seed of, and it is little trouble. The sorts may 

 thus be better depended on, and the small quantity 

 wanted of each kind makes it hardly 'worth while 

 to buy, if we can raise them ourselves, or get them 

 of a friend ; no single flowers should be suffered to. 

 grow in a garden where there are double ones to 

 bear seed, as larkspurs, and holy hocks, for the Fa- 

 rina of the singles transported by bee or wind will 

 spoil the seed of the doubles. Such single flowers 

 should be taken up as soon as ever discovered to be 

 so. It should be a rule iw flower seeds in general 

 to be fresh from year to year ; though if kept dry, 

 and from much air, many sorts will grow that are 

 older : curious flower seeds are kept well in vials : 

 others may be in small drawers, and some hung up, 

 or kept on shelves in their pods. 



Seeds may be forwarded for sowing by various 

 ways of procuring a germination before they are put 

 into the ground. In summer it has not been unusual 

 to steep both broad and kidney -beans in soft water, 

 or milk and water, about twenty-four hours, to for- 

 ward their growth, and to ascertain their vitality. 

 If the ground is very dry when these seeds are com- 

 mitted to it, either steeped, or not, it is a good way 

 to make drills or trenches to plant them in, watering 

 them well first, and then pressing the seed in a little. 

 Any sort of the broad beam, or even peas, may be 

 forwarded, when ground is not for the present ready, 

 by laying them in damp mould, in a garden pot, or 

 otherwise, a layer of earth, and a layer of seeds. &c. 

 and they may be put into drills or trenches (with 

 care; when the radicle has put out a little, the mould 



