66 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap 



beans, peas, and many other things, there cannot 

 easily be mistake or deception. But, as to cab- 

 bages, cauliflowers, turnips, radishes, lettuces, 

 onions, leeks, and numerous others, the eye is no 

 guide at all. If, therefore, you do not save your 

 own seed, (of the manner of doing which I shall 

 speak by and by,) you ought to be very careful as 

 to w^hom you purchase of; and, though the seller 

 be a person of perfect probity, he may be deceived 

 himself. If you do not save your own seed, which, 

 as will be seen, cannot always be done with safety, 

 all you can do, is, to take every precaution in your 

 power when you purchase. Be very particular, 

 very full and clear, in the order you give for seed. 

 Know the seedsman well, if possible. Speak to 

 him yourself, on the subject, if you can ; and, in 

 short, take every precaution in your power, in order 

 to avoid the m.ortifications like those of having one 

 sort of cabbage, when you expected another, and ol 

 having rape when you expected turnips or ruta-baga. 



TRUE SEED. 



129. But, besides the kind, there is the genuine- 

 ness to be considered. For instance, you want su- 

 gar-loaf cabbage. The seed you sow may be cab- 

 bage : it may, too, be sugar-loaf, or more that than 

 any thing else : but, still, it may not be true to its 

 kind. It may have become degenerate ; it may have 

 become mixed, or crossed, in generating. And thus, 

 the plants may very much disappoint you. True 

 seed is a great thing : for, not only the time of the 

 crop coming in, but the quantity and quality of it, 

 greatly depend upon the trueness of the seed. You 

 have plants, to be sure ; that is to say, you have 

 something grow ; but you will not, if the seed be 

 not true, have the thing you want. 



130. To insure truth in seed, you must, if you 



