268 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



which fulfils every requirement may, after the lapse of a few 

 years, be found quite disappointing. This decadence varies 

 very much with different sorts, some passing their best very 

 quickly whilst others appear to be equally good after quite a 

 number of years, but all the same the tendency is present, and 

 no grower should pin his faith blindly to certain sorts, but 

 should experiment with others, if only in a small way, so that 

 they may have tried sorts to fall back upon when their favourites 

 disappoint them. A grower commencing in a new district will 

 find it to his advantage to make enquiries from his neighbours 

 as to the sorts which do the best, and should follow their advice 

 until he has acquired experience for himself. 



Having decided on the variety, the next matter for consider- 

 ation is the district from where the seed is to be procured. 

 This is of great importance, as a change of seed at frequent 

 intervals often results in a decided improvement both in the 

 bulk of the crop and of its quality. Many growers too often 

 neglect this point, and for the sake of a fictitious cheapness 

 either continue to use seed of their own growing or obtain it 

 from a neighbouring grower. This is a "penny wise and pound 

 foolish" policy. A change of seed should be made at least 

 every third year, and it should be from a locality with an entirely 

 different soil and climate. For many years past Scottish seed 

 has been in high favour with many English growers, and Irish 

 seed has now many advocates, both having been proved to give 

 much better crops than seed saved in the southern parts of 

 England. Quite as good results have, however, been obtained 

 from seed procured from some of the more northerly English 

 counties. The underlying principle appears to be that immature 

 tubers grow stronger and give a better crop than those which 

 are allowed to become fully ripened before they are lifted, and 

 the shorter and cooler summers in the northerly parts of the 

 kingdom provide automatically for such immaturity. Where a 

 grower wishes, for some special reason, to save some of his 

 own stock for seed the necessary immaturity could be secured 

 by late planting, or by cutting off the haulms before the tubers 

 are fully developed. 



The next point to consider is the size of the sets. Here 

 again we find many growers err by using " chats " for seed, 



