FIELD AND GARDEN SEEDS. 331 



round or elongated by a careful selection of seed, indicating 

 in a much greater degree the type desired. And while I can 

 only describe but few things in the garden, the whole im- 

 pressed me as work which can be accomplished only by nice 

 selection of seed, and thorough cultivation, combined. 



I have another friend who has a natural and perhaps an 

 educated fondness for the farm and garden, whose fields show 

 the influence of the thrifty hand, as av^II as a mind trained to 

 their cultivation. The fields are tilled for the usual farm 

 crop, where rotation is the course of husbandry pursued. 

 Grass, corn, oats, barley, potatoes and roots are grown. 

 The garden is planted with vegetables for the family suste- 

 nance, and the surplus finds sale among friends and the 

 market. 



The major portion of the seeds used are bought of the 

 '* reliable seedmen," — men who co-operate with the itinerant 

 seed venders who, for money, sell seed with high sounding 

 names, represented to be true to name and variety. Under 

 these circumstances, while my friend sometimes gets good 

 seeds, he often is doomed to disappointment in various ways 

 during the season. The early dwarf peas, which he has 

 made no provision to bush, he soon finds making a prodigious 

 growth, and are in season with the Champions. 



His early Egyptian beets (he was beat when the seed was 

 bought) proved to be mixed in great variety, from the half- 

 long red to the veritable mangold. His early sweet corn 

 comes up Stowell's evergreen and other nameless sorts ; his 

 cabbages are as headless as the seed vender is heartless. 



Amid his vexations he concludes that accomplishments 

 contribute some happiness to life, and lesolves in the future 

 to raise his own seed, or to buy of those who make a specialty 

 of raising the best. 



It is rarely practical or good husbandry for the farmer to 

 raise all the varieties of seeds he wants ; he is rarely versed in 

 the varied knowledge and conditions required to grow the 

 many sorts ; but he may make a specialty of a few, and learn 

 and apply the principles to develop the best. A man who 

 learns to do anything well enjoys his occupation, and is 

 confident his labor will be rewarded with success. 



If farmers would work to produce the best of one or 



