SEEDS AND SEED-GROWTH. 3 



But our nurserymen and tree-growers mainly rely on 

 foreign nurseries for tree-stocks and seeds of the conifers, 

 bulbs, and many of the leading flower-seeds. 



Each year large consignments of evergreen seed are re- 

 ceived from western Europe, while tons of the cones of such 

 beautiful and hardy native species as Black Hills spruce, 

 silver spruce, white spruce, Colorado fir, Black Hills 

 pine, and red pine are allowed to go to waste. 



In the line of tree-stocks it is much the same. French 

 crab-apple seed and Mazzard and Mahaleb cherry stocks 

 and pits are imported by the carload, while native seed is 

 neglected to large extent. In the States west of the lakes 

 the use of native seeds of the conifers and tree-stocks is 

 most important for climatic reasons. The seeds of hardy 

 home-grown apples, the pits of our select native plums, 

 the pits of our wild red cherry, the seeds of our home-grown 

 flowers, and the seeds of the Colorado and Black Hills con- 

 ifers should be used at the West, and they would prove 

 more valuable than the imported ones over a large part of 

 the union. Indeed, in all parts of the union the use of 

 home-grown seeds should be encouraged, especially in the 

 way of conifers and fruit-tree stocks. 



4. Seed-saving. In selecting seeds for growing fruit- 

 tree stocks it is desirable to secure those from primitive 

 or nearly primitive types and species. The abnormal de- 

 velopment of the edible portion of fruits is not favorable 

 for the development of plump and perfect seeds. In many 

 of the highly developed fruits of the apple, pear, cherry, 

 plum, grape, pineapple, banana, and tomato we find no per- 

 fect seed, and the few capable of germination fail to develop 

 strong, healthy seedlings. A well-known propagator has 

 said that he would sooner pay twenty-five dollars for a 

 bushel of Red Romanite apple-seed than to have the seed 

 of Yellow Bellflower and Grimes Golden as a gift. Expe- 



