94 THE SEED-GROWER. 



that seed will be likely to spill or shell out in course of 

 ripening, cloths or sheets of heavy paper may be 

 spread under the plants close to the stem. In the fore- 

 noon after the dew is off, and at intervals during the 

 day, shake plants well to loosen seed and cause it to 

 drop on the cloth or paper beneath. This seed may be 

 removed in the evening, and the paper or cloth re- 

 placed in the morning. 



Cleaning may be performed with a hand-sieve of 

 suitable mesh, or by using, if one be at hand, a seed- 

 cleaner, of which there is a special small size made for 

 flower seeds. 



Market. Every American is a lover of flowers, and 

 every American home having a piece of ground, no 

 matter how small, is sure to have its flower bed; the 

 vegetable garden may go, but there must be flowers. 



As may be imagined, there is an extensive trade in 

 America for flower seeds, it amounting in the country 

 at large to many millions of packets annually. 



The demand for home gardens runs principally to 

 annuals, those varieties which flower the first year from 

 seed and then perish. The purchases by florists, who 

 are usually heavy buyers, consist mostly of the choicer 

 biennial and perennial sorts. Therefore, all grades and 

 kinds of flower seeds are carried in stock by seedsmen 

 everywhere. 



The industry of flower seed growing in America 

 while it is improving fast, is not yet at the highest ad- 

 vanced stage. In fact, at this time Europe produces 

 the finest flower seeds in the world, and the American 

 seed trade is consequently obliged to depend at present 

 almost entirely on that source for the choicest seeds of 

 the most approved varieties. 



There is nothing to be wondered at as regards this 



