264 On saving Garden Seeds in Private Gardens. 



erect. By this method, upon the first six or seven feet on 

 each side of the stem full crops of the moderate-growing 

 kinds may be produced, and from that distance to the ex- 

 tremity of each branch, good crops of the shy-bearing sorts 

 may be obtained, thus causing the tree from one end to the 

 other to be covered with fruit. 

 Grantham. December 6. 1826. 



Art. II. On saving Garden Seeds by Gentlemen's Gardeners. 

 By an Old Gardener. 



Sir, 

 Some gentlemen require their gardeners to save all their 

 own seeds, and that from one garden, particularly if the gar- 

 den is of considerable size; and in case of failure from wet or 

 dry seasons, such as the last, the gardener, if unfortunately he 

 cannot save enough of seeds for his use, incurs his master's 

 displeasure, if not his discharge. My object is to show to 

 those gentlemen that the thing cannot be done beyond the 

 commonest sorts of peas, beans, potatoes, &c. Many gentle- 

 men are not aware that the seeds of the whole tribe of Bras- 

 sica plants, including all the varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, 

 broccoli, Brussels sprouts, borecole, savoy, turnip, &c. &c. 

 will become hybridised by the pollen of the flowers coming in 

 contact promiscuously. As most of those plants flower at the 

 same time, not only the wind, but the bees, butterflies, and other 

 insects, are sufficient to effect an intermixture of the pollen. If 

 the whole be in one garden, the saving the seeds of such a va- 

 riety of sorts as are wanted by the gardener cannot possibly be 

 accomplished ; a disappointment not easily to be endured must 

 take place. To have his cauliflowers genuine and early, his 

 broccoli of sorts (six at least) true, his cabbage early and late, 

 so as not to disappoint him at the time they are most wanted; his 

 turnips of the different varieties, not to mention lettuce, radishes, 

 onions, carrots, &c. — which, it is well known, are as easily hy- 

 bridised by proximity as the Brassica tribe, — is not possible, 

 unless the seeds are saved from plants growing at proper dis- 

 tances from each other ; and I maintain that the limits of any 

 garden, however large, do not admit of their being placed at 

 this distance. Perhaps a garden of 10 acres, (and there are 

 very few in the country which can boast of such an extent,) 

 may be thought by many to answer all the purposes of seed 

 saving ; but it is a well known fact, that an intermixture of 



