SEEDS 



tence of giving a date for his seed, and he simply 

 says, "All the seeds I offer are of the growth 

 of 1899." There may be others who make such 

 a declaration, but if so I have no knowledge 

 of them. That old seeds are sold, and that 

 they are often entirely worthless, there is no 

 reason whatever to doubt. As I said before, the 

 period that it takes to render a seed worthless 

 varies materially. One variety of seed may re- 

 main comparatively good for years, while another 

 is useless in a few weeks. Take the perennial 

 Phlox paniculata, or decussata, for instance. I 

 bought the seeds of this plant year after year, 

 first by the package and then by the ounce, and 

 planted them carefully, and yet not one seed 

 ever germinated. Why I failed I found out 

 later, when I learned that one cannot expect 

 these seeds to germinate at all, unless planted 

 almost immediately after becoming ripe, that is, 

 during the fall they were produced. Do the 

 seedsmen tell you this ? By no means, and yet 

 they sell you the seeds knowing them to be 

 months, or possibly even years old, and presum- 

 ably knowing, also, that they are worthless. Is 

 this a harsh statement ? It may be so, but it is 

 not more so than that which the members of the 



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