SEEDS AND SEED GROWING. 



57 



Sometimes seeds that barely germinate under the excep- 

 tionally good conditions that exist in a sitting room or green- 

 house will not grow readily when planted outdoors, so that in 

 testing seeds it is very important to note the vigor of the sprouts. 

 Seeds that start strongly in the house may be safely planted at 

 their proper season outdoors, while those that start only weak 

 sprouts indoors may be worthless for outdoor planting. An in- 

 stance bearing on this occurred a few years ago at Chester, 

 N. Y., where an onion grower planted seeds three years old 

 which germinated fairly well in his conservatory but failed to 

 grow outdoors, while fresher onion seed sown at the same time 

 grew perfectly. 



The Curing and Storing of Seeds are matters of much im- 

 portance and greatly influence their germinating qualities. 

 Seeds should be thoroughly ventilated while being cured, or 

 they will mould or sprout, either of which seriously injures their 

 value. Seeds of some kinds will sprout several times before 

 entirely losing their germinating qualities, but they lose much of 

 their vitality, even by once sprouting. Moulded seeds may some- 

 times retain their vitality unimpaired, but if to be offered for 

 sale their dark color is objectionable, for it must always be re- 

 garded as an evidence of neglect in curing. It is important also 

 to prevent seeds, especially tropical seeds as those of melons, 

 squashes, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc., from being frozen un- 

 til fully dry. The freezing of green or half cured seeds in- 

 jures their vitality and often destroys it. This is well known in 

 the case of corn where the seed taken from an ordinary crib in 

 the spring often fails to grow while seed corn from the same crop 

 properly cured in a dry v/arm room grows perfectly. 



Seeds are much influenced by the temperature and humidity 

 of the place in which they are kept. A dry place is absolutely 

 necessary for successfully keeping garden seeds, and if warm 

 so much the better for tropical seeds The temperature and con- 

 dition of a good living room are almost ideal for storing all kinds 

 of garden seeds. Most if not all our garden seeds are unimpair- 

 ed by even severe freezing while perfectly dry. In a moist place 

 garden seeds lose their germinating qualities much quicker than 

 when they are kept dry. 



Changing Seed. — There are locations so well adapted to cer- 



