CHAPTER VIII 



SEED ECONOMIES 



DURING the decade prior to the War, Germany sent 

 to this country an incredible quantity of vegetable seeds 

 which found a ready market. When hostilities broke 

 out this supply necessarily and happily ceased, and since 

 then we have had to depend on home-grown stocks and 

 the produce of our allies and neutrals. With the 

 shortened supply has come a greatly increased demand 

 for the thousands of new allotment-holders all require 

 sufficient to crop their land. 



As a result of these conditions, it is most imperative 

 that every possible economy in seeds should be practised 

 during the next few seasons. We must reduce to a 

 minimum, for instance, the need for thinning out the 

 young seedlings by much lighter sowings, and, above all, 

 it is a duty to refrain from buying supplies of seeds at 

 random, not knowing whether we have sufficient ground 

 for them or not. In order to assist cultivators in deciding 

 the exact quantity of seed they require, the Food Pro- 

 duction Department has drawn up the following useful 

 table : 



