III.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 69 



though, if the seed be very good ; if there 

 be four or five in a case, shell and all will sink in 

 water, after being in the glass an hour. And, as it 

 is a matter of such great importance, that every 

 seed should grow in a case where the plants stand 

 so far apart ; as gaps in rows of Beet and Mangel 

 Wurzel are so very injurious, the best way is to re- 

 ject all seed that will not sink case and all, after 

 being put into warm water and remaining there 

 an hour. 



134. But, seeds of all sorts, are, sometimes, if not 

 always, part sound and part unsound; and, as the 

 former is not to be rejected on account of the latter, 

 the proportion of each should be ascertained, if a 

 separation be not made. Count then a hundred 

 seeds, taken promiscuously, and put them into wa- 

 ter as before directed. If fifty sink and fifty swim, 

 half your seed is bad and half good ; and so, in 

 proportion, as to other numbers of sinkers and 

 swimmers. There may be plants, the sound seeds 

 of which will not sink ; but I know of none. If to 

 be found in any instance, they would, I think, be 

 found in those of the Tulip-tree, the Ash, the Birch, 

 and the Parsnip, all of which are furnished with so 

 large a portion of wing. Yet all these, if sound, 

 will sink, if put into warm water, with the wet 

 worked a little into the wings first. 



135. There is, however, another way of ascer 

 taining this important fact, the soundness, or un 

 soundness of seed ; and that is, by sowing them. 

 If you have a hot-bed ; or, if not, how easy to 

 make one for a hand-glass (see Paragraph 94), 

 put a hundred seeds, taken as before directed, sow 

 them in a flower pot, and plunge the pot in the 

 earth, under the glass, in the hot-bed, or hand-glass. 

 The climate, under the glass, is warm ; and a rerv 



