42 PETER HENDERSON <fc CO.'S CATALOGUE OF SEEDS. 



'-I, fte mi f to to pi 



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



4S seed-sowing is the starting point of cropping, a thorough knowledge of the 

 conditious 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 matter is too often the cause of much undeserved 

 censure upon the seedsman, for in nine cases out of teu 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 aud Tomatoes. Yet 

 even in the waning heat of this early hot-bed, where a thermometer would possibly not 

 indicate more than fifty degrees, he finds in a week or so his Cabbage, Lettuce, and 

 Cauliflower, " coming through " nicely, but, as yet no Egg Plants, Pepr>ers, or Tomatoes. 

 He impatiently 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 for ever after looks upon the seedsman he has patronized as a venial 

 wretch, destitute of principle and honesty. But he must have Tomatoes, Peppers, 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, gives 

 him the proper temperature in his hot-bed — 70 or 80 degrees — and his eyes are at last 

 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 his open ground operations with little con- 

 fidence in his seeds, but as he has got them, they may as well be tried; and again he 

 sows in the same day his Peas and Lima Beans, Radishes and Pumpkins, Onions and 

 Sweet Corn. Hardy and tender get the same treatment. The result must of necessity 

 he the same as it was in the hot-bed, the hardy seeds duly vegetate, while the tender 

 are of course rotted. This time he is not surprised, for he is already convinced 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 

 continue 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 iu 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 garden. 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, Vegetable seeds that may be sown in the open 



from the middle of March to the end of April, ther- ground, in this latitude, from the middle of May to 

 mometer in the shade, averaging 45 degrees. the middle of June, thermometer in the shade aver- 



aging 60 degrees. 



Lima Beans, Water Melon, 



Bush Beans, Squash, 



Cranberry Pole Beans, Pumpkin, 



Scarlet Runner Beans, Tomato, 



Sweet Corn, Nasturtium, 



Musk Melon, Okra, 



Cucumber. 



Beet, 



Lettuce, 



Carrot, 



Parsley, 



Cress, 



Parsnip, 



Celery, 



Onions, 



Cabbage, 



Peas, 



Cauliflower, 



Radish, 



Endive, 



Turnip. 



Kale, 



Spinach. 



