PETER HENDERSON & CO. S CATALOGUE OF SEED* 



HOW, WHEH, AND WHEEE TO SOW! 



Extract from "Gardening for Profit," by Peter Henderson. 



S seed-sowing is the starting point of cropping, a thorough knowledge of the conditions 

 necessary for the germination of the different varieties will go far towards putting the tyro 

 in gardening well on the way to success. The very general want of knowledge in this mat- 

 ter is too often the cause of much undeserved censure upon the seedsman, for in nine cases out of 

 ten the failure is not with the seeds, but results from the time or manner of planting. When the 

 owner of a garden sends his order for seeds to the seedsman, it is generally a complete list of all 

 he wants for the season. They are received, and the interesting operation of sowing is begun; 

 first in a hot-bed, if he has one, often as early as the first week in February (a month too soon, by 

 the way), and in go, indiscriminately, at the same date, and under the same sash, his seeds of 

 Cabbage, Cauliflower, Lettuce and Egg-plant, Peppers and Tomatoes. Yet even in the waning 

 heat of this early hot-bed, where a thermometer would possibly not indicate more than fifty de- 

 grees, he finds in a week or so his Cabbage, Lettuce and Cauliflower " coming through" nicely, 

 but as yet no Egg-plants, Peppers, or Tomatoes, He impatientty waits another week, makes an 

 examination, and discovers that instead of his Tomatoes and Egg-plants beginning to vegetate, 

 they are commencing to rot. It is now plain to him that he has been cheated; he has been sold 

 old seed, and if he does nothing worse, he forever after looks upon the seedsman he has patron- 

 ized as a venal wretch, destitute of principle and honesty. But he must have Tomatoes, Pep- 

 pers, and Egg-plants, and he buys again from another seedsman, warranted honest. He renews 

 his hot-bed; it is now a month later, and a bright March sun, with milder nights, give him the 

 proper temperature in the hot-bed — 70 or 80 degrees — and his eyes are again gladdened by the 

 sprouting of the troublesome seed. April comes, with warm sunshine, inviting him to begin to 

 "make garden" outside. He has yet the balance of the original lot of seeds that he bought in 

 February. But as he is still entirely befogged about the cause of his failure in the first hot-bed, 

 he begins to open ground operations with but little confidence in his seeds, but as he has got 

 them, they may as well be tried; and again he sows in the same way, his Peas and Lima Beans, 

 Radishes and Pumpkins, Onions and Sweet Corn. Hardy and tender get the same treatment. 

 The result, must, of necessity, be the same as it was in the hot-bed, the hardy seeds duly vege- 

 tate, while the tender are, of course, rotted. This time he is not surprised, for he is already con- 

 vinced that seedsman No. 1 is a rascal, and only wonders how any of his seeds grew at all, so he 

 again orders from seedsman No. 2, for the articles that have failed. Here circumstances con- 

 tinue to favor the latter, for by this time the season has advanced in its temperature, and the seeds 

 duly vegetate. Every farmer knows that in this latitude, he can sow Oats or Wheat in March or 

 April, but that if he sows'his Corn or Pumpkins at the same time, they will perish. This he 

 knows, but he may not know that what is true of the crops of the farm is equally true of the gar- 

 den. Hence the importance of a knowledge of the season when to sow vegetable seeds, or set 

 out plants. The temperature best fitted for the germination of seeds of the leading kinds will be 

 best understood by the tabular form given below: 



Vegetable seeds that may be sown in this latitude, from 

 the middle of March to the end of April, thermometer in 

 the shade averaging 45 degrees. 



Beets, Lettuce, 



Carrot, Parsley, 



Cress, Parsnip, 



Celery, Onions, 



Cabbage, Peas, 



Cauliflower, Radish, 



Endive, Turnip, 



Kale, Spinach. 



Vegetable seeds that may be sown in the open ground 

 in this latitude, from the middle of May to the middle of 

 June, thermometer in the shade averaging 69 degrees. 

 Lima Beans, Water Melon, 



Bush Beans, Okra, 



Pole Beans, Pumpkins, 



Sweet Corn, Tomato, 



Cucumber, Squash, 



Musk Melon, Nasturtium. 



