SEEDS AND SEED SOWING. 41 



grow, are, nine cases out of ten, perfect nonsense, as the 

 failure to make them grow is due to the ignorance or care- 

 lessness of the cultivator. There are few vegetable seeds 

 that do not vegetate freely when they are more than a 

 year old, and are just as good and sometimes better than 

 when fresh from the plant. 



Those that are only considered as retaining their vitality 

 for one year, are leeks, onions, parsnips and rhubarb. 



For two years: beans and peas of all kinds, peppers, 

 carrot, egg plant, okra, salsify, scorzoncra, cress, nastur- 

 tium, thyme, sage and herb seeds generally. 



For three years : artichoke, asparagus, endive, lettuce, 

 fetticus, mustard, parsley, skirret, spinach and radish. 



For four years: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, 

 turnip and celery. 



For five years: beet, cucumber, melon, pumpkin, squash, 

 tomato, chervil and sorrel. 



The great requisites in raising plants from seeds, are a 

 suitable soil, temperature, air and moisture. The soil 

 should always be well pulverized and brought into fine 

 tilth, to enable the tender, germinating plants to penetrate 

 it. To sow seeds in heavy, coarsely broken up land, and 

 perhaps water-soaked at that, is only labor thrown away. 

 The temperature of the soil is a matter of great importance, 

 and requires much discrimination, as our vegetables come 

 from various climates, some tropical and others extra- 

 tropical ; so that a temperature that suits one would be 

 death to the other, or will materially delay its germina- 

 tion. For instance, cresses will vegetate in twenty-four 

 hours in a soil at 45 degrees. Luna beans Trill vegetate in 

 seven days when the thermometer is at 88 degrees, but 

 require twenty days if it is only at 62 degrees. Peas will 

 vegetate in eleven days if the temperature is 74 degrees, 



