62 Le Bon Jardinier. 



M. Poiteau asks, why gardeners do not adopt generally the 

 practice of germinating seeds before they sow them ? The 

 advantages are, that they rise more quickly, and are con- 

 sequently less exposed to the ravages of insects, and being 

 choked by weeds ; future hoeings also become less numerous 

 and expensive. M. Poiteau's practice in his younger days 

 was as follows: — the seeds to be sown were put in small 

 linen bags, which, being tied, were plunged into lukewarm 

 water for four or five hours ; the bags were then suspended 

 for one night in a chimney, where but a very moderate fire 

 was kept : on the following morning, seeds of lettuces and 

 radishes were germinated. More slow growing seeds, after 

 having been steeped one day, were kept in a humid lukewarm 

 atmosphere for several days; that is, they were malted till 

 the radicle began to protrude. By this process, parsley, 

 which, sown in the ground without preparation, lies dormant 

 for four or five weeks, rises in four days. Steeped in a weak 

 solution of muriate of lime, or in water in which a few drops 

 of muriatic acid have been mingled, seeds germinate and rise 

 still quicker. M. Poiteau goes farther, and, applying the same 

 principle to cookery, asks, why, since germination developes 

 sugar, as in the malting of barley, we do not malt or ger- 

 minate peas, beans, kidney-beans, See. before cooking them ? 



M. Van Mons of Brussels occupied himself upwards of 

 thirty years in sowing seeds of fruit-trees, with a view to 

 obtain new and superior varieties. In 1823 he published a 

 catalogue, in which he explained his method of proceeding, 

 which is thus given by M. Poiteau:— in sowing the seeds of 

 kernel fruits for new varieties, after the plants have come up 

 and grown a year or two, it is common to select for preserv- 

 ation, with a view to fruiting, such as have few or no spines, 

 large leaves, and thick shoots ; such plants, especially among 

 pear seedlings, for the most part produce summer fruits of a 

 small size and little flavour. M. Van Mons, on the contrary, 

 chooses thorny plants, in which the spines are long, and fur- 

 nished with buds to their summit, and of which the general 

 aspect of the plant recalls to mind some good known variety. 

 When these plants bear fruit, he sows their seeds, and again 

 the seeds of the fruit so produced to the 4th, 5th, and 6th 

 generation. The peach and apricot sown in this manner 

 have not produced excellent fruit till the third generation, 

 the apple till the fourth generation, and the pear till the fifth 

 or sixth generation. It is to be observed, that out of each 

 generation a choice of plants is made on the same principles 

 as out of the first. A good kind being got, may be increased 



