68 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



the loss of a previous planting by frost; otherwise it is 

 better for the gardener to commit his seed to the ground 

 under as favorable conditions as possible, and trust to the 

 usual natural process. 



HOME-GROWN SEEDS. 



While it is a matter of true economy for the farmer to 

 purchase as little as he may, and sell as much as he can, a 

 non-observance of which rule has often been the fault of 

 the Southern planter; we are compelled by the effects of 

 our climate to purchase the majority of our vegetable 

 seeds of either foreign or Northern growers. Half the 

 success of growing profitable crops depends upon the 

 seeds, and we can better afford to pay treble the price for 

 those which, from experience, we know to be good and 

 true, than to grow them ourselves, and find too late that 

 they are worse than useless. Again, many vexations from 

 buying poor seed may be avoided by growing such as are 

 indigenous to warm climates, and maybe produced cheaply 

 and of superior quality. There is no reason, for instance, 

 why the Southern truck-farmer should not save his own 

 seed of melons, squashes, cucumbers, onions, pepper, to- 

 matoes, and egg-plants, provided he can keep each of the 

 first named three far enough apart from any other species 

 of the squash family to prevent mixing, while it is 

 not advisable for him to use his own seed of cabbage, cauli- 

 flower, etc. ; of beets, carrots, turnips, etc. ; for the 

 former will run prematurely to seed without forming 

 heads, and the roots of the latter will be of inferior 

 quality, becoming small and woody. It is so difficult to 

 preserve large quantities of garden peas and snap beans 

 against injury from weevils, from the time they mature, 

 through the summer, to the following spring, that, al- 

 though I have seen peas of home growth satisfactorily 

 tested along side of those grown in Canada, both in ref- 



