218 GARDENING. 



If the farmer does not save his own seed, which can. 

 not always be done with convenience, all he can do, is, 

 to take every precaution in his power when he pur- 

 chases, and of whom he purchases. Some kinds of seed 

 will keep a good many yenvs ; therefore, when any that 

 is venj true can be procured, it is best to g^et as much as 

 will last for the number of years that such seed will 

 keep. Allseeds which are sound, and really good, wili 

 .sink in iuke-wann zi-ater in a short lime, if divested of ev- 

 ery thing which adheres to them. 



Commonly speaking, new seed is to be preferred to 

 old, as growing the more luxuriently, and comeing up 

 the surer and quicker. If old seed is knowingly sown, 

 some allowance in point of time must be made. 



As to the saving of seed, such plants should be select- 

 ed as are of the most perfect shape and quality. In the 

 Cabbage, we seek small stem, well formed loaf, few 

 spare or loose leaves ; in the 1\irnip, large bulb, small 

 neck, slender-stalked leaves, solid flesh or pulp ; in the 

 Radish, high color, (if red or scarlet,) small neck, few 

 and short leaves, and long root. Of ' plants, the early 

 coming of which is a circumstance of importance, the 

 very earliest should be chosen for seed. They should 

 he carefully cultivated during the time they are carry- 

 ing on their seed to perfection. But, effectual means 

 must be taken to prevent a mixing of the sorts, espec- 

 ially among cabbages, turnips, &c. Mr. Cobbett found 

 that Indian Corn would mix when the plants were three 

 hundred yards from each other. What, he asks, must 

 be the consequence, then, of saving seed from cucum- 

 bers, melons, pumpkins, and-^ squashes, all growing in 

 the same garden at the same time. It is not unfrcquent 

 to hear persons complaining that their melons are bad. 

 On an inquiry into this circumstance, it will often be 

 found that they have been raised and have flower- 

 ed with cucumbers; and that instead oi' thut flavor wliich 

 is natural, and which constitutes the excellence of the 

 fruit, they ar€^ rapid and unpalatable. To save the seed 

 of two sorts oi^ any tribe, in the same garden, in the 

 same year, ought not be attempted ; and this it is that 

 makes it diflicult for any one man to raise all sorts of 

 seeds good and true. However, some may be saved by 



