Seeds for the Garden 131 
The advice of experienced home gardeners will often be 
of special value. rol mt 
The beginner in gardening should choose standard 
varieties. These will usually give the most successful 
crops. They are standard varieties because by long 
trial they have been known to give the best crops. If 
the gardener fails in growing standard sorts, he may be 
sure that the fault lies in cultural conditions, especially 
if his neighbors succeed with the same varieties. 
As the gardener gains in experience, others besides 
the standard varieties may be tried with results that may 
give pleasure as well as profit. Sometimes new varieties 
are found to be far better than the older varieties in 
one or more desirable qualities. 
Amount of seed needed. Before ordering seeds, the 
amount of each kind needed should be rather carefully 
estimated. A single packet of small seeds, such as 
lettuce, tomato, radish, or cabbage, is sufficient for a 
small garden. It is well to become familiar with the 
amount necessary to sow a given area. An ounce of 
beet seed, for example, will sow a row of about 25 feet. 
Of the larger seeds, such as bean and corn, a half pint 
is needed for a row of 50 feet. With a good plan of the 
garden, one can determine very accurately the quantity 
of seed needed. No more than this amount should be 
ordered. 
Seeds can be bought cheaper in bulk than in small 
packets. In a half pound of corn, costing about 25 
cents, there are more than three times as many seeds 
as there are in a 1o-cent packet. Any group of persons 
(a garden club, a school, a class, a troop of Boy Scouts) 
