THE SAVING OF SEED 



9 



seed, raises plants from it, and keeps only those which suit 

 him. These he crosses again, saves the seed again, and so 

 goes on, year after year, in the work of producing the kind 

 of plant that he has set his heart on. In this way, by the 

 patient work of men whose names we seldom hear, were 

 produced the fine varieties which any one can buy for little 

 money. 



The work of selecting seed is different. We let the plants 

 breed as they will, but keep on the watch for especially fine 

 ones of the kind that we like best 

 or need most. From these we save 

 the seed, hoping for at least as good 

 results next year. We depend, 

 therefore, a good .deal upon acci- 

 dent, but also much upon our own 

 taste. 



For any one with a garden that 

 is near other gardens, as is a 

 school plot, the value of saved FlG 7 The new round 



seed is often very slight. For the tomato, as compared with the 

 , t . , t -, -, smaller, grooved, older kind. 



wind and the bees are always, busy The result of breeding . 

 in crossing neighboring plants, so 



that a single plant in one garden may have been pollenized 

 from two or three neighboring plots. Seed from such plants 

 cannot be depended on to be as good as their parents. If 

 one is thinking of saving any kind of seed, then, he is best 

 off if the plants grow by themselves, at a distance from 

 similar plants, which might bring unwished-for qualities. 

 From a field of the same kind of corn, from tomato plants 

 which stand by themselves and which all come from the 

 same packet of seed, or from poppies which have no poppy 

 neighbors, it will probably pay to save the seed of the finest 

 plants. 



