THE SELECTION OF SEED 95 



in the art, as far as I could learn, had come to the conclusion 

 that it could not be further improved, and in the first two 

 or three generations of the work it seemed a fair conclusion. 

 But I had been for many years working on the improvement 

 of various flowers, which work had proved so eminently 

 successful that a first rebuff did not deter me from further 

 attempts." 



For more than twenty years Mr. Eckford has been de- 

 voting attention to the sweet pea, and a large part of the 

 best varieties to-day originated with him. Thanks to our 

 modern methods of seed distribution, as fast as a new type 

 of flower has become fairly well fixed it has been available 

 for gardeners everywhere, and herein is the advantage de- 

 rived by the gardener who studies carefully the announce- 

 ments of novelties in the seed catalogues. It is more or less 

 fashionable to deride these novelties and to say they are not 

 worth the high prices charged for them. Doubtless this is 

 frequently true, but it will not prevent an intelligent gar- 

 dener from taking advantage of such of them as seem most 

 desirable for his conditions. The improvements in gar- 

 dening come through these very novelties, and we ought to 

 be thankful to pay a few cents more for seed grown for us 

 by Henry Eckford or Luther Burbank — seed which repre- 

 sents not only the labor of growing but also the special care 

 and intelligence exercised during many years in order to 

 create a new type of flower. 



Perhaps the most beautiful of all the varying forms of 

 poppies are the Shirley Poppies. The plants are not very 

 large, and have slender, graceful stems and leaves. The 

 flower buds are enclosed in two large sepals that fall off as 

 the petals unfold, revealing the light-colored stamens sur- 



