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care. It seems unaccountable that many gardeners pay so 

 little attention to the manner of growing their vegetable seeds, 

 as it requires so little trouble to select a few good roots of each 

 variety in the Fall which can be set the following Spring in 

 one row, as different species do not hybridize or mix, but 

 different varieties of the same species should not be placed near 

 each other. Manure well with well decomposed compost adding 

 a little super-phosphate. When the Cabbages, Beets, Carrots 

 and Parsnips commence to branch, cut off all side laterals, 

 reserving only the centre shoots, or those starting from the 

 centre. This produces large, superior seed, the failure of doing 

 ■which is often the cause of unevenness in the seed and crop and 

 sometimes even the failure of the entire crop. Never cut the 

 tops with a knife from vegetables to be kept for seed stock, but 

 remove them by hand ; when setting a Cabbage for seed in the 

 Spring a cross-cut one inch deep should be made on the 

 extreme top of the head, which enables the tender shoot to 

 burst from the centre of the solid head. 



If our brother gardeners fail to grow the seeds they require^ 

 then purchase their supply f'rom a careful dealer, who fully un- 

 derstands how seed should be grown. I will not say honest 

 seedsmen, as I believe all seedsmen are honest hy compulsion, 

 for there is no business in which a man will so easily ruin his 

 reputation and business as by selling poor seed, as one pound 

 of worthless seed costing one dollar may ruin the salesman's 

 trade throughout an entire county. For example, Mr. A. pur- 

 chases of Mr. B. a pound of cabbage seed and sows it, waiting 

 patiently the result. His cabbages fail to head, and in the Fall 

 he has but few suitable for market. Now during the season, 

 farmers call to examine and compare each other's crops. Mr. 

 A.'s callers are informed of the worthless seed purchased of Mr. 

 B.; the result is that Mr. B.'s seeds are condemned as not relia. 

 ble. Therefore a seedsman in his right mind will never inten- 

 tionally allow a pound of inferior seed to be sold to the injury 

 of his character and business. Seedsmen are often asked to 

 warrant, or guarantee their seeds to produce a crop. My answer 



