53 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. PART I. 



CAUSES OF THE FAILURE OF IMPORTED SEED. 



Whole batches of imported seed, however, from whatever 

 quarter of the world they may have been derived, will sometimes 

 utterly fail of germinating. Any one of the following reasons, 

 or, indeed, more than one of them combined, may often be 

 assigned for this. 



Sometimes the seeds are old, and all but worthless, as they 

 leave the hands of the seedsman. The mixing with the fresh 

 seed of the year what remains over from previous years was a 

 well-known practice with dealers : but, I trust, among seedsmen 

 of reputation no such dishonesty prevails now. The term 

 " cooking," I am told, I was wrong in applying to the practice. 

 That term refers to something even more dishonest the mixing 

 of two lots of seed, perfectly similar in appearance, but totally 

 different in kind, such as Eape and Turnip for instance, having 

 first boiled the cheap and worthless kind to prevent its subse- 

 quently germinating, and so exposing the fraud. 



Bad packing also is, no doubt, one cause from which seeds 

 sometimes perish on their voyage to this country. . The tenacity 

 of life in many kinds, though very great, is not such, that all 

 precautions for their safe keeping on the voyage hither need be 

 wholly disregarded. 



Again, seed often proves valueless from having been consigned 

 to this country at an improper season. No seed should arrive 

 here long before it is the right time for sowing it ; otherwise, 

 though perfectly sound on its arrival, the risk of its becoming 

 bad before being put in the ground is very great. In Bengal 

 this is especially the case ; and seed intended to be sown at 

 the commencement of the Cold season, that arrives a month or 

 two previous perfectly sound and good, will, if opened and left 

 exposed to the action of the humid atmosphere, be all but sure 

 to fail. 



Seeds, however, that in reality are perfectly good when sown 

 are often pronounced to be bad, for one or the other of the 

 two reasons : 



First, from having been sown too soon in the season they 

 have not germinated in the time they were expected. Many of 

 the annuals Nemophila and Larkspur, for instance will not 

 germinate readily, if at all, till the Cold season is thoroughly 



