68 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have often heard it remarked, that it was not much of an aceom- 

 pUshment to grow vegetables, but I wish to emphatically dispel any 

 such idea and to say that the gardener \\ho can successfully and 

 continuously supply the table wants from the vegetable garden 

 during the whole year, is the man who is a credit to his profession. 

 He is not an amateur by any means but an expert in this branch of 

 horticulture. 



There are many gardens where too little attention is given to the 

 cultivation of the many rare and valuable vegetables which may be 

 grown and brought to the table at seasons when there is a scarcity 

 of variety, or where they make a valuable change to the, perhaps, 

 epicurean tastvrs of the owner of the garden. 



It should be the endeavor of the gardener at all times to secure 

 something new of merit to which he may call the attention of his 

 employer when a convenient opportunity presents itself; and, no 

 matter how fond of fine flowers a lady or gentleman may be, I have 

 yet failed to meet any who were not equally fond of choice vegetables. 



It would be impracticable for me at this time to say which are 

 the best varieties of vegetables, but I wish to pass a few remarks on 

 some varieties of the more common kinds of vegetables \vhich 

 possess particular merit and which may be helpful at this season 

 in the selection of seeds from the alluring catalogues of the many 

 reliable seed houses — and, by the way, the procuring of high-grade 

 seeds is one of the most important steps towards having a good 

 vegetable garden. By high-grade seeds I mean seeds that are of 

 the finest selection of the variety or species they represent. I have 

 never yet found the seed store that could supply the highest grades 

 of all kinds of vegetables that a gardener may wish to grow, and 

 the gardener will invariably find that he may get an excellent 

 selection or strain of one kind of seed from one particular seed store 

 and another from some other. This is especially true of fine strains 

 of flower seeds, and it is equally true or more so of vegetable seeds. 



There are many specimens of vegetables from which the gardener 

 will do well to save his own seeds. Careful selection of particular 

 strains may be greatly improved in this way, especially of such 

 vegetables as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans, etc. Even 

 some introducers of excellent varieties of vegetables soon lose a 

 good strain of seeds, and it will be to the gardener's advantage to 



