GOOD SEED 



117 



Then, too, it must be viable. We do not have very much 

 trouble along this line. As a rule, the seeds v^e buy grow.. 

 Most of the seed houses maintain germinating stations. While 

 seeds generally grow, there is a possibility of your losing 

 several hundred dollars because you have bought seed which, 

 is not viable. You had better buy in good time and determine 

 the viability or germinating power in order to make certain 

 of avoiding loss. 



Garden seeds must be free from impurity. Sometimes an 

 unscrupulous grower will slip a little turnip seed into the 

 cauliflower seed. 



strains. 



But the subject I want to talk about, primarily, in this 

 connection is the question of strain. Seeds are not good un- 

 less the strain is good. There is not much danger of getting 

 pebbles and sticks in our vegetable seeds, but there is danger 

 of buying a poor strain. For example, at State College we 

 have been growing tomatoes for some years in the green- 

 house. This year I found that the tomatoes were not first 

 class. There were too many rough specimens. The man in 

 charge said there was no doubt about them being Bonny 

 Best. Upon investigation, however, we found that an in- 

 ferior strain had been used and that this was wholly account- 

 able for the poor results. 



We have reached a point in vegetable gardening when we 

 cannot afford to use seed that we do not know. There may 

 be some exceptions. Perhaps the most noteworthy excep- 

 tion is celery. I would hesitate to make a statement that a 

 man knows what he is going to get from the celery seed he 

 plants, but so far as the seeds are concerned which we can 

 grow on our own farms, we have reached the point where 

 we should know whether the seed planted will give us good 

 results or not. Experiments at State College, in charge of 

 Mr. C. E. Myers, to determine the variations between strains 

 of a given variety, show that it is exceedingly important to 

 get the best strain of a given variety. 



Results In Pennsylvania. 



The first chart shows strains of Jersey Wakefield cabbage. 

 I cannot say, definitely, that every line represents a differ- 



