48 



PROPAGATION AND 



[chap. 



80. Notwithstanding this list, I always sow new seed in pre- 

 ference to old, if, in all other respects, I know the new to be equal 

 to the old. And, as to the notion that seeds can be the better 

 for being old, even more than a year old, I hold it to be mon- 

 strously absurd : and this opinion I give as the result of long ex- 

 perience, most attentive observation, and numerous experiments 

 made for the express purpose of ascertaining the fact. 



81. Yet, it is a received opinion, a thing taken for granted, an 

 axiom in horticulture, that melon seed is the better for being old. 

 Mr. Marshall says that it ought to be ah out four years old, 

 though some prefer it 7nuch older.'' And he afterwards observes 

 that " if new seed only can be had, it should be carried a week or 

 two in the breeches-jjocket, to dry away some of the more loatery 

 particles ! " If age be a recommendation in rules as ^yell as in 

 melon-seed, this rule has it ; for English authors published it, and 

 French authors laughed at it, more than a century jyast ! 



82. Those w ho can afford to have melons raised in their gar- 

 dens can afford to keep a conjurer to raise them ; and a conjurer 

 will hardly condescend to follow common sense in his practice. 

 This would be lowering the profession in the eyes of the vulgar ; 

 and, which would be very dangerous, in the eyes of his employer. 

 However, a great deal of this stuff is traditionary ; and how are 

 we to find the conscience to blame a gardener for errors inculcated 

 by gentlemen of erudition ! 



83. I cannot dismiss this part of my subject without once more 

 cautioning the reader against the danger of unripe seed. In cases 

 where winter overtakes you before your seed be quite ripe, the 

 best way is to pull up the plants and hang them by the heels in a 

 dry airy place, till all green depart from the stalks, and until they 

 be quite dry, and wholly rid of juice. Even in hot weather, when 

 the seed would drop out if the plants were left standing, pull or 

 cut the plants, and lay them on a cloth in the sun, till the seed be 

 all ready to fall out ; for, if forced from the pod, the seed is never 

 so good. Seeds will groio if gathered when they are green as 

 grass, and afterwards dried in the sun ; but they do not produce 

 plants like those coming from ripe seed. I tried, some years ago, 

 fifty grains of wheat, gathered green, against fifty gathered ripe. 

 Not only were the plants of the former feeble, when compared 

 with the latter ; not on'y was the produce of the former two- 

 thirds less than that of the latter; but even the quality of the grain 



