1897.] ESSAYS. 31 



seed that is not so ripe. The seed must give the first nourishmeut to 

 the plant. The seed business has entirely changed in the last quarter 

 of a century, and has now become a business of great magnitude. 

 There are now employed in the business, improved system, better 

 knowledge and facilities. Formerly, farmers raised their own seeds, 

 perhaps finding it necessary on account of the difficulty in buying good 

 seeds. But now, with the testing system, we have no difficulty in 

 getting good seeds. There are thoroughly reliable seed farmers in all 

 parts of the United States, Canada and Europe. Canada produces 

 most of the pea seed ; California, lettuce ; Ohio, tomato ; and Con- 

 necticut, sweet corn and onion. 



The same principles apply to a garden whether large or small. It 

 is well to start out in the spring with radishes. I advise planting the 

 following crops : Vick's Scarlet Globe radish ; Tennis Ball lettuce ; 

 Round Leaved spinach ; Alaska, for early peas, to be followed by the 

 Advancer, Telephone and Stratagem ; for beets, Crosby's Egyptian 

 for early, and Edmunds' for late ; beans, Wax for string, Dwarf Hor- 

 ticulture for early shell and Worcester Pole for late shell ; sweet corn, 

 Corey for early, Stowell's Evergreen for late; cucumbers. White 

 Spine ; tomatoes, Atlantic Prize for earliest. Dwarf Champion and 

 Acme for later ; squash, in order. Summer Crookneck, Boston Mar- 

 row, Bay State, Essex Hybrid, Hubbard ; cabbages, Jersey Wakefield 

 and Warren's Stone Mason. 



