46 



PROPAGATION AND 



[chap. 



from cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squashes, and gourds, all 

 growing in the same garden at the same time ! To save" the seed 

 of two sorts of any tribe, in the same garden, in the same year, 

 ought not to be attempted; and this it is that makes it difficult for 

 any one man to raise all sorts of seeds good and true. 



77. However, some may be saved by every one who has a gar- 

 den, and when raised, they ought to be carefully preserved. They 

 are best preserved in the pod, or on the stalks. Seeds of many 

 sorts will be perfectly good to the age of eight or ten years, if 

 kept in the pod or on the stalks, which seeds, if threshed, will be 

 good for little at the end of three years or less. However, to keep 

 seeds, without threshing them out, is seldom convenient, often 

 impracticable, and always exposes them to injury from mice and 

 rats, and from various other enemies, of which, however, the 

 greatest is carelessness. Therefore, the best way is, except for 

 things that are very curious, and that lie in a small compass, to 

 thresh out all seeds. 



78. They should stand till perfectly ripe, if possible. They 

 should be cut, or pulled, or gathered, when it is dry ; and they 

 should, if possible, be dry as dry can be before they are threshed 

 out. If, when threshed, any moisture remain about them, they 

 should be placed in the sun, or near a fire in a dry room ; and, when 

 quite dry, should be put into bags, and hung up against a very dry 

 wall, or dry boards, where they will by no accident get damp. The 

 best place is some room, or place, where there is, occasionally at 

 least, a. fire kept in winter. 



79. Thus preserved kept from open air and from damp, the 

 seeds of vegetables will keep sound and good for sowing for the 

 number of years stated in the following list ; to which the reader 

 will particularly attend. Some of the seeds in this list will keep, 

 sometimes, a year longer, if very very well saved and very well pre- 

 served, and especially if closely kept from exposure to the open air. 

 But, to lose a crop from unsoundness of seed is a sad thing, and, it 

 is indeed negligence wholly inexcusable to sow seed of the sound- 

 ness of which we are not certain. 



