HOW TO BEGIN. 59 



that practice favors autumn planting. Mr. Payson 

 modifies the method of stratifying seed mentioned on 

 Page 17, by having his boxes shallow for the reason 

 that some of the seeds germinate in the spring follow- 

 ing their harvest. This seems good practice. As to 

 stratifying berries or only the seed, growers disagree. 

 There seems no reason to suppose that either method 

 is likely to result unfavorably. 



A word to all seems necessary as to the so-called 

 "water test" for the goodness of seed. The assump- 

 tion is that when seed is dropped in water the good 

 will sink and the bad will float. It does not follow, 

 however, that the heavy is necessarily good nor that 

 the light is necessarily bad. A careful test of many 

 kinds of seeds adapted to this method will show that 

 many of the seeds that float will remain at the sur- 

 face because a tiny bubble holds them there. And 

 many more will float because they are dry. Those 

 that sink may do so because they are specifically 

 heavier than water. This matter is brought up not 

 to cast any discredit upon the water test nor upon 

 the men that advertise that they use it, but to 

 emphasize the fact that among the floating seeds will 

 probably be found many that will produce plants, as 

 also among the heavy ones seeds that will not. If the 

 dealer wish to be scrupulously honest let him sell the 

 heavier seeds and plant the light ones just for fun. 

 No one can .deny him this little pleasure. 



SOIL 



In reference to the natural home of the plant and 

 to the soil (discussed on Pages 14 and 19) a good piece 

 of evidence is furnished by the Reverend W. H. Kerr, 

 of Crawf ordsville, Indiana. He also describes a handy 

 tool for the digging of wild ginseng. The quotation 

 is from Special Crops and serves to emphasize what 

 will be said under "Adulteration and Fraud" con- 



