Seeds for the Garden 131 



The advice of experienced home gardeners will often be 

 of special value. 



The beginner in gardening should choose standard 

 varieties. These will usually give the most successful 

 crops. They are standard varieties because by long 

 trial they have been known to give the best crops. If 

 the gardener fails in growing standard sorts, he may be 

 sure that the fault lies in cultural conditions, especially 

 if his neighbors succeed with the same varieties. 



As the gardener gains in experience, others besides 

 the standard varieties may be tried with results that may 

 give pleasure as well as profit. Sometimes new varieties 

 are found to be far better than the older varieties in 

 one or more desirable qualities. 



Amount of seed needed. Before ordering seeds, the 

 amount of each kind needed should be rather carefully 

 estimated. A single packet of small seeds, such as 

 lettuce, tomato, radish, or cabbage, is sufficient for a 

 small garden. It is well to become familiar with the 

 amount necessary to sow a given area. An ounce of 

 beet seed, for example, will sow a row of about 25 feet. 

 Of the larger seeds, such as bean and corn, a half pint 

 is needed for a row of 50 feet. With a good plan of the 

 garden, one can determine very accurately the quantity 

 of seed needed. No more than this amount should be 

 ordered. 



Seeds can be bought cheaper in bulk than in small 

 packets. In a half pound of corn, costing about 25 

 cents, there are more than three times as many seeds 

 as there are in a lo-cent packet. Any group of persons 

 (a garden club, a school, a class, a troop of Boy Scouts) 



