132 Gardening 
who are engaged in gardening will find it to their advan- 
tage to order in bulk and then divide the seed into 
packets themselves. 
How to produce seeds in the home garden. Good 
seed of several of the crops grown in the home vegetable 
garden may be raised by the gardener himself. In grow- 
ing these seeds, he needs to pay attention to the same 
matters that the commercial seedsman does. He should 
aim first to select parents which are true to the variety ; 
next, to prevent cross-pollination between varieties ; 
and finally, to collect and care for the seed prop- 
erly. 
The successful selection of seed and the judgment of 
parents is least difficult in those plants whose fruits or 
seeds are used as food. Melons, corn, tomatoes, and 
beans are in this class. These plants make complete, 
or almost complete, development as ordinarily grown 
in the garden. With a little study the best plants may 
be selected for seed parents. The largest and earliest 
fruits from best-yielding plants may be saved for their 
seeds. To insure a good pollen parent for corn, it is an 
excellent plan to cut out those stalks that bear no ears, 
and break off, before the pollen is shed, the tassels of the 
plants that have small ears. 
In selection for those plants like the salad plants and 
the root crops, attention is given especially to the edible 
parts — leaves, stems, or roots—rather than to the 
fruits or the seeds. The annuals of this group, especially 
lettuce and radishes, tend to produce some poor plants 
which “run to seed” early. These should be pulled 
up before they blossom. If a few of the earliest of the 
