Starting the Plants 73 



directly, everything depends on the seed. Good 

 seeds, and true, you must have if your garden is to 

 attain that highest success which should be our aim. 

 Seeds vary greatly — very much more so than the 

 beginner has any conception of. There are three 

 essentials ; if seeds fail in any one of them, they will 

 be rendered next to useless. First, they must be true ; 

 selected from good types of stock and true to name ; 

 then they must have been good, strong, plump seeds, 

 full of life and gathered from healthy plants; and 

 finally, they must be fresh.* It is therefore of vital 

 importance that you procure the best seeds that can 

 be had, regardless of cost. Poor seeds are dear at 

 any price; you cannot afford to accept them as a 

 gift. It is, of course, impossible to give a rule by 

 which to buy good seed, but the following sugges- 

 tions will put you on the safe track. First, purchase 

 only of some reliable mail-order house; do not be 

 tempted, either by convenience or cheapness, to buy 

 the gaily lithographed packets displayed in grocery 

 and hardware stores at planting time — as a rule they 

 are not reliable ; and what you want for your good 

 money is good seed, not cheap ink. Second, buy of 

 seedsmen who make a point of growing and testing 

 their own seed. Third, to begin with, buy from 

 several houses and weed out to the one which proves, 

 by actual results, to be the most reliable. Another 



*See table, page 85. 



