HOW, WHEN AND WHERE TO SOW SEEDS. 105 



sowed it about May 1st, in Northern Indiana, and three 

 weeks too earl} 7 for that section ; what made matters 

 even worse, we have had a cold, wet May ; the average 

 temperature at night for the fortnight would probably 

 not exceed forty-five degrees. Under such circumstances 

 the seed corn could no more have germinated than if it 

 had been thrown into the fire. That the seed was good 

 was certain beyond question, as our trials showed that 

 ninety per cent. grew. 



A decision was not long ago rendered in one of the 

 Philadelphia courts against the claim for damages made 

 by a market gardener, who brought suit against a well-- 

 known seedsman of that city for having sold him seed of 

 Early York Cabbage that had "run to seed." 



The ventilation of such a matter is exceedingly in- 

 structive to those engaged in gardening operations, as 

 was shown by the facts elicited on the trial, the gist of 

 which was, that the prosecutor had sown the Cabbage 

 seed on the 5th of September instead of the 15th, and 

 that error, combined with an unusually mild and grow- 

 ing fall, practically lengthened the season, so that the 

 Cabbage plants became "annuals" running to seed 

 within the year of sowing rather than forming heads 

 and acting as " biennials," as was expected of them. 

 Now, just here an excellent lesson conies in with another 

 vegetable. Many of our so-called scientific gardeners are 

 English, Scotch, Irish, or Germans ; they come here, 

 most of them, with a thorough contempt for our rougher 

 style of doing things (a practical style born of our neces- 

 sities in the higher cost of labor) ; and it is next to im- 

 possible to convince one in a dozen of them that there 

 is anything in horticultural matters here that they need 

 to be informed of. Accordingly, if he wishes to raise 

 Celery, he starts his seed in a hot-bed in February, just 

 as he would have done in England, and is astonished to 

 find in July that instead of forming a thick and solid 



