8 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 'S? 



year). In midsummer and autumn, when you 

 compare your free-seed plants with those of a 

 neighbor who bought his of a reputable seeds- 

 man, you will be likely to make sorrowful 

 comparisons. 



One September, after I had been eating Bur- 

 bank 86 Chalk's Early Jewel tomatoes for 

 several weeks, a farmer's wife showed me a 

 row of tomato plants (started very early in a 

 cold frame) which had green, half- grown fruit 

 on their vines, none of which could possibly 

 ripen before frost. She had received them 

 from a Congressman, who should have known 

 that that variety could not mature in Maine. 

 A dime spent on the right seeds would have 

 given her bushels of ripe tomatoes. 



