OF ROOT CULTIVATION. 33 



Now, as " " seed is supplied to customers 

 under the designation here given, for the purpose 

 of mixing, it is of little consequence whether it be 

 used by the wholesale house or the retail dealer; 

 if, however, it be employed by both, we should, 

 indeed, get a bad sample. 



As regards the seedsman's samples in the Tables 2 

 and 3, we are quite unable to give exact details of 

 their history, but we have reason to believe that the 

 stock whence they were taken was purchased in the 

 ordinary course of business from different " whole- 

 sale houses," as, though the tradesman whence the 

 samples came combines the business of " nursery- 

 man " with that of seedsman, we happen to know 

 that he is not a grower of seeds, at least of turnip 

 seeds. The average, then, of eighteen samples of 

 turnips and swedes from this source is that 28 per 

 cent, are non-germinating seeds. The next samples 

 arc from people in a large way of business, who are 

 not mere retailers, but to whom we must accord all 

 the immunities of the trade as seed-growers, whole- 

 sale and retail seed-merchants, &c. 



Before giving the tables with the results as regards 

 these samples, it is necessary to state that they were 

 not sent to us direct, but were forwarded through a 

 farmer to whom they were sent in the ordinary small 

 packet samples. 



We would further remark, that as all that would 

 germinate took so few days about it, being an average 

 of six days, whilst those of Table 1, being seeds partly 

 of 1859 and partly of 1860, occupied nine days, and 

 those of Table 2, whoso date we do not know, eleven 

 days ; in all probability the seeds in question were 

 tolerably new, most probably of the last seed season. 



D 



