Practical Study of Gardening 



I wish to call the attention of gardeners and farmers 

 generally to the wisdom of saving the seeds of all extra 

 choice home-grown products. It is the quickest way of 

 securing a variety just adapted in all respects to the soil 

 and climatic conditions, and one knows at planting time 

 just about what to expect from his crop. Melons, espe- 

 cially, vary to such a marked extent, that whenever an 

 especially delicious one is cut, its seeds should be carefully 

 saved, and labeled in some way to indicate their special 

 merit. Squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, and any 

 other vegetables which are normally picked ripe, should 

 have unusually perfect specimens selected for the seed. 

 Of course it does not pay to save the seed except from 

 unusually good specimens, because even then, many will 

 be produced inferior to the parent stock, and a few, prob- 

 ably, much superior to the parent stock. Vegetables, and 

 such fruits as the melons, usually come fairly true from 

 seed. Other fruits are customarily budded or grafted, 

 and seed selection is useless except for experimentation. 

 Leave the very best of the vegetables to thoroughly ripen. 

 The seeds will be worth much more during the year to 

 come than the single specimen which produced them. 



Gardening is profitable to any family that has the ad- 

 vantage of lands. It also may be a source of pleasure as 

 well as profit. For the benefit of beginners, who may be 

 unfamiliar with the quantities of seed needed to plant a 

 garden of a given size, the following tabular statement 

 is inserted. It represents the quantities of seeds which 

 should be purchased for planting gardens suitable to the 



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