GARDENING. 55 



not the sccds^ but the cases in which the seeds are con- 

 tained, each case containing from one to five seeds. 

 Therefore, the trial by water is not conclusive as to 

 these two seeds, though if the seed be very good, it will 

 sink in water, after being in the glass an hour. 



19. ''And as it is a matter of such great importance 

 that every seed should grow, where the plants stand so 

 far apart; as gaps in roots of beets and mangel wurtzel 

 are so very injurious, the best way is to reject all seeds 

 that will not sink, case and all, after being put into 

 warm water and remaining there an hour. 



20. "But seeds of all sorts, are, sometimes, if not 

 always, part sound and part unsound ; and as the former 

 are not to be rejected on account of the latter, the pro- 

 portion of each should be ascertained, if a separation be 

 not made. Count, then, a hundred seeds, taken pro- 

 miscuously, and put them into water as before directed. 

 If fifty sink and fifty swim, half your seed is bad and 

 half is good; and so in proportion as to other numbers 

 of sinkers and swimmers. 



21. "There may be plants the sound seeds of which 

 will not sink^ but I know of none. If to be found in 

 any instance, they would, I think, be found in those of 

 the tulip tree, the ash, the birch and parsnep, all of 

 which are furnished with a large portion of wing. — 

 Yet all these if sound^ will sink, if put into warm water, 

 with the wet worked a little into the wings first. I in- 

 cline to the opinion, that we should try seeds as our 

 ancestors tried witches: not by fire, but by water; and 

 that following up their practice we should reprobate 

 and destroy all that do not readily sink. 



TO GERMINATE SEEDS. 



It is very important that many kinds of seeds should 

 be rolled in by a heavy roller, or by pressing the earth 

 hard upon them by placing a board on the bed, and 

 walking across it several times. Celery, spinage, onions, 

 and many other kinds of garden seeds, will not vege- 

 tate, unless the earth is pressed on them hard, or rolled 

 after being sown. 



