IV.] 



CULTIVATION IN GENEF.AL. 



43 



sive) the injury may be very great ; and there is no redress. If a 

 man sell you one sort of seed for another ; or, if he sell you untrue 

 seed ; the law will give you redress to the full extent of the injury 

 proved; and the ^?'oo/ can be produced. But, if the seed does 

 not come up, what proof have you ? You may prove the sowing ; 

 but, who is to prove that the seed was not chilled or scorched in 

 the ground ? That it was not eaten by insects there ? That it was 

 not destroyed in coming up, or in germinating ? 



67, There are, however, means of ascertaining whether seed be 

 sound, or not, before you sow^ it in the ground. I know of no 

 seed w hich, if sound and really good, will not sink in water. The 

 unsoundness of seed arises from several causes. Unripeness, Might, 

 mouldiness, and age, are the most frequent of these causes. The two 

 first, if excessive, prevent the seed from ever having the germinat- 

 ing quality in them. ]Mouldiness arises from the seed being kept 

 in a damp place, or from its having heated. When dried again it 

 becomes light. Age will cause the germinating quality to evapo- 

 rate ; though, where there is a great proportion of oil in the seed 

 this quality will remain in it for many years, as will be seen by- 

 and-by. 



68. The way to try seed is this. Put a small quantity of it in 

 lukewarm water, and let the water be four or five inches deep. A 

 mug or basin will do, but a large tumbler glass is best; for then you 

 can see the bottom as well as top. Some seeds, such as those of 

 cabbage, radish, and turnip, will, if good, go to the bottom at once. 

 Cucumber, melon, lettuce, endive, and many others, require a few 

 minutes. Parsnip and carrot, and all the winged seeds, require to 

 be w^orked by your fingers in a little water, and well wetted, before 

 you put them into the glass : and the carrot should be ruhhed, so 

 as to get off part of the hairs, which would otherwise act as the 

 feathers do as to a duck. The seed of beet and mangul wurzel are 

 in a case or shell. The rough things that we sow are not the 

 seeds, but the cases in which the seeds are contained, each case 

 containing from one to five seeds. Therefore, the trial by water is 

 not, as to these two seeds, conclusive ; though if the seed be very 

 good ; if there be four or five in a case, shell and all will sink in 

 water, after being in the glass an hour. And, as it is a matter of 

 such great importance that every seed should grow in a case where 

 the plants stand so far apart ; as gaps in rows of beet and mangul 

 wurzel are so very injurious, the best way is to reject all seed that 



