NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 77 



upon thickness of flesh texture and flavor. With this 

 variability in the whims of seed growers, it cannot be 

 wondered at that seeds sold under the same name pro- 

 duce widely different results as to development. 



CHAPTEK XIV. 

 SEEDSMEN'S NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 



There cannot be any good reason advanced why the 

 seed grower should not seize upon and perpetuate vege- 

 table hybrids or sports whenever they present new and 

 desirable features, even though the plant, on the whole, 

 is no better than some other well known sort. Novelties 

 may often show no practical improvement, in any sense, 

 being simply a variability of questionable utility in form, 

 size or color ; nevertheless, the effort to develop novelties 

 has resulted in an improvement in vegetables and flow- 

 ers to such an extent that, in the manner of general 

 excellence, the cultivated plants of the present day are 

 far in advance of those of twenty years ago. 



Demand for Novelties. Novelties in vegetables 

 and flowers are all right, so far as they are true novel- 

 ties, and selected by practical seed-growers, but, unfor- 

 tunately, many so-called novelties are not the result of 

 culture or selection by practical workers in the field, but 

 altogether the product of the sensational seed merchant, 

 who does his farming at his desk, his plow being his 

 pen, drawn by an imagination so fertile as to have ex- 

 hausted the vocabulary of the English language, to 

 which he adds pictures and illustrations, ofttimes por- 

 trayed in such an undignified and offensive manner as 

 to bring his business down to the level of the mounte- 

 bank. In no business of the present day is there so 



