196 PLAIN AKD PLEASANT TALK 



more than they do wealth, it becomes such to render the 

 lists SELECT ; and while the monstrously bloated catalogues 

 of boasting and avaricious men continue to perplex and de- 

 ceive the unwary, let all intelligent cultivators sustam 

 those who rely on the quality rather than quantity of their 

 articles. 



GARDEN SEEDS. 



Good seeds are the very first requisite for a good garden ; 

 soil and culture cannot make good crops out of bad seed. 



1. As a general rule, buy your seeds. The reasons for it 

 are so many and so good, that you will certainly do it, 

 unless economy prevent ; but it is better to economize else- 

 where. 



In the first place, seed-raising is a delicate business ; and, 

 for many reasons, will be better done by those who make it 

 their business, than by those who do not. A reputable 

 seedsman never dreams of raising, himself, all the seeds 

 which he sells. For example, one sort of seed is let out to 

 a farmer who contracts to raise it in a given soil and man- 

 ner, and at a distance from all other seeds. One man raises 

 the beet seed — another man, very often hundreds of miles 

 distant, another sort. Peas are sent to Vermont and to 

 Canada, where the pea-bug does not infest them. Some 

 seeds, for which this climate is not favorable, are imported 

 from Italy, from Guernsey — just as flowering bulbs are from 

 Holland. We suppose this to be true of Landreth, Thorn- 

 burn, Prince, Breck, Risley, etc. In cases where seeds are 

 raised upon the premises of the seedsman, they are put on 

 diffbrent parts of the farm, as far apart as possible. 



These precautions are indispensable to the procm*ation of 

 the best seeds of esculent vegetables. Species of the same 

 genus, with open flowers, are so easily crossed^ that, if 



