64 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



that are likely to run to vine, while older seed yield 

 more abundant crops of fruit. Some English horticul- 

 turists carry the cucumber seed they intend to plant in 

 hot-beds, in the pockets of their pantaloons for months 

 prior to planting, in the belief that the warmth of their 

 bodies increases the productiveness of the vines. How- 

 ever this may be, it is a safe rule that seed should be 

 fresh. Old seeds, endowed with weaker vitality, are 

 slower to germinate; they come up irregularly, and too 

 large a percentage is absolutely sterile. Seed of ten-weeks 

 stock, four years old, is used by gardeners to produce 

 plants to bear double flowers, while fresh seed produces 

 the more perfect single flowers. Such being the case, only 

 fresh tomato seed should be used; as the double flowers 

 produce irregularly- shaped, knobby fruit, while it is 

 only the single flowers that form the desirable round 

 and smooth fruit. 



The chemical elements in an imperfectly matured 

 seed seem unstably combined. If such germinate at all, 

 it will be sooner than seeds fully ripe; but the plants will 

 be of weaker growth, owing, probably, to an insufficient 

 storage of nourishment. Such unripe seeds will also be 

 the earliest to become sterile. Some vegetable physi- 

 ologists believe that immature seeds will produce earlier 

 Varieties than the mature. There are many facts in 

 regard to the distribution and germination of seeds, 

 which appear unaccountable and wonderful. After the 

 destruction of forests by fire, certain plants will spring 

 up in large numbers, although no parent plants of the 

 same species may have been growing in the vicinity. 

 The unavoidable conclusion is, that the seed had re- 

 mained in the soil for years, awaiting favorable condi- 

 tions for its development. Plants, unlike any in the 

 vicinity, have grown in the soil excavated from deep 

 wells; thus the upper crust of the earth seems full of 

 seeds. Every Southern farmer, who has cleared land, 



