0?i saving Garden Seeds in Private Gardens. 265 



the pollen has been effected at a much greater distance than 

 such a garden will afford ; consequently, disappointments must 

 ensue of a nature calculated to endanger the gardener in his 

 situation. The established nursery and seedsmen of celebrity 

 round the metropolis may always be depended upon for cor- 

 rectness in their different varieties of seeds, as their credit and 

 success in trade depends on their particular attention to that 

 department of their business. But how do they maintain this 

 credit ? It may not be known to many gentlemen, that the 

 nurserymen do not save all their own seeds, for the very same 

 reason that the gardener cannot ; namely, for the want of ex- 

 tent, and yet there are several nurseries above 60, and some 

 above 100 acres. 



Flower seeds may with greater facility be obtained, where 

 there is a large flower-garden, and the season favourable for 

 ripening ; but in many parts of the country tender annuals, 

 when planted out into the flower-garden, will not in wet seasons 

 ripen their seeds and seed-pods, and the withered flowers that 

 necessarily accompany them are at all times unsightly in such 

 a situation. But suppose beauty no object, still in a wet season, 

 or when by any other cause a crop fails, the gardener can have 

 no alternative but to apply to the nurseryman for a supply for 

 the ensuing year; and that gardener must be hardly dealt 

 with, if, notwithstanding the reasons above stated, his employer 

 insists upon him saving all his seeds. 



To conclude, I maintain that the business of seed saving is 

 quite a different branch of horticulture from that professed by 

 gentlemen's gardeners, whose business it is to obtain and fur- 

 nish for their master's tables every thing in as well as out of 

 season, especially where forcing is carried on to any extent, 

 and not to keep things back to mature their seeds for another 

 season. I am, Sir, &c. 



An Old Gardener. 



It would be easy to point out the utter impossibility of any 

 gardener saving the whole, or even any considerable part of 

 his garden seeds, and at the same time having the sorts true 

 to their characters. How very easily varieties of the Brassica 

 family may be contaminated, and what important consequences 

 result from their contamination, may be seen in a long account 

 of a law-suit on the subject, in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. x. 

 p. 2. A garden of 5000 acres would not be sufficient to admit 

 of a gardener saving the requisite varieties of Broccoli with 

 the certainty of having them true, since it is proved that bees 

 will go two miles in quest of flowers. Hence the great care of 



