What's New in Vegetable and Flower Seeds? 



REVIEW OF THE TRADE'S OFFERINGS IN THE NOVELTIES OF THE SEASON 



By THE EDITORIAL STAFF 



This is the first part of a comprehensive review of the trade activities in new offerings this year. In next month's number the plants, summer 



roots, shrubs, Roses, and such like, will receive attention. 



THE effects of the great war are 

 clearly reflected in the horticultural 

 trade offerings this season. This 

 is due to a large extent to the fact 

 that certain large seed producing centres of 

 the world are now incomunicado, and even 

 though there may have been a normal supply 

 of new things scheduled for introduction at 

 this time, yet trade conditions made it im- 

 possible to get them into circulation." 



Furthermore, the continued warfare will 

 have very largely reduced seed production 

 in those same regions, and has had a restrict- 

 ing result quite apart from the difficulties of 

 communication. Last year we had occasion 

 to mention in the corresponding review that 

 the influence of the European war was clearly 

 seen in the comparative scarcity of seed novel- 

 ties; and commented further that the loss was 

 being met in some degree by the supplies 

 grown in America. The developments of a 

 year have but served to intensify those same 

 conditions. The ultimate outlook would 

 seem to be much brighter for such staples in 

 flowers and vegetables as can be produced at 

 home. Probably the necessity of turning 

 to home industry as a source of supply will 

 bear fruition in later years by having placed 

 the American seed grower in a stronger strat- 

 egic position than he had before. It is not 

 likely that we shall ever again be so entirely 

 dependent upon foreign agencies for such 

 things as can be adequately produced at home. 

 The world's commerce is being readjusted. 



THE tendency of the trade as a whole, 

 with reference to new things, is summed 

 up admirably in a letter from a prominent 

 eastern seedsman, reading in part as follows: 

 "We consider this the wrong time to pre- 

 sent high priced novelties in vegetables. In 

 order to meet the public demand and to ren- 

 der our country the service which we think it 

 is our duty to give at this time, we have 

 devoted the entire novelty section of the vege- 

 table seed part of our catalogue to the pre- 

 sentation of standard varieties especially re- 

 commended for the home vegetable garden." 



From widely different sections expressions 

 of the same sentiment have reached us, in 

 one form or another. "Nothing new, but 

 something better — selected strains, strains 

 that are as nearly fool-proof as we can make 

 them," writes a western seedsman. And 

 the catalogue offerings of the leaders of the 

 industry prove their desire to be useful to 



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t^m-m* 



Sidalcea Rose Queen is a selected type of a native American 

 family that will surely be quite at home in our gardens 



gardeners striving after maximum returns 

 rather than to cater to the desires of those 

 seeking the unusual. 



TT IS just as well! It is well that we should 

 ■*- become betteracquaintedwithwhatwe have. 

 Many a diamond "in the rough" is buried 

 beneath the maze of cumbersome names in 

 the average seed catalogue. The recognition 

 of the food value of root crops is more impor- 

 tant to us, at present, than the introduction 

 of a new egg plant of a different shade of 



purple! One enterprising seedsman has 

 scoured "all the friendly corners of the globe" 

 in search of unusual vegetables designed to 

 acquaint America with some of the food-stand- 

 bys of older civilizations. 



And yet, the year is not entirely bare of 

 worthwhile novelties, due to the fact that the 

 fixing process generally covers a period of 

 years. This holds more true in the case of 

 flowers than vegetables. Work of some 

 hybridizers, started several years before the 

 war, is beginning to bear fruit. 



Intrinsic Merit in Vegetables 



THE Golden State contributes a new String- 

 less Green Podded Navy Bean, bred up 

 by selection, true to bush type, with string- 

 less pods and white dry beans (Aggeler & 

 Musser). Aside from this, the bean situation 

 throughout the country the past summer 

 proved even more disastrous than the one of 

 1916. It kept the growers busy to provide 

 seeds in barely sufficient quantities to perpet- 

 uate the leading standard varieties. The 

 same holds true of peas and corn, though of the 

 latter, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, brings 

 forth a new main crop variety, Sweet Heart 

 Sweet Corn (Holmes) said to bear from two to 

 four ears, each eight to ten inches long, per 

 stalk. 



In White Top Blood Turnip Beet an odd form 

 of that important root crop, with light yel- 

 low foliage, claims attention. Though as a 

 rule, light tops are indicative of light color in 

 the root, this sort is said to have blood red 

 flesh. (Holmes) 



Just-in-Head Lettuce of the early butter- 

 head type (Wing) promises to prove a sur- 

 prise as regards both earliness in heading and 

 standing quality before going to seed. Ohio 

 Grand Rapids Lettuce, evolved by the Ohio 

 Experiment Station holds out interesting pos- 

 sibilities for underglass gardeners. It is re- 

 freshing to read the bland statement of the 

 introducer (Wing) that this sort is not recom- 

 mended for outdoor culture. 



Working on the basis that an improved 

 strain of a popular standard of proven merit is 



A green podded Navy bean without strings 

 will be welcomed for trial 



The Home Tomato as it behaves in California. 



prolific 



74 



Potato-leaf type and quite 



Ohio Grand Rapids lettuce is a selected strain 

 specially adapted for under glass 



