THE NECESSARY QUANTITIES OF SEEDS AND ROOTS. 



11 



keeping such seeds for years, until they, 

 as it were, arrive at maturity in conse- 

 quence of age, or are brought artificially to 

 that state by the means (or other means 

 similar) above stated, which is correct in 

 principle. In the case of the natural 

 order above referred to (the Brassicse), 

 seeds of three ages have been found of 

 vast advantage — a circumstance, if we 

 recollect rightly, brought before the 

 public some years ago by Mr Archibald 

 Gorrie, who, in reference to the turnip 

 (and all the Brassicse may be taken 

 in the same category), says the plants 

 from seeds of the previous year, being 

 stronger, vegetate first, and afford food for 

 the fly, while those from the seed of the 

 year previous to that follow in succession ; 

 and if vegetation be going on rapidly, 

 these may escape wholly the attacks of 

 insects ; if not, the older seed of all, which 

 vegetates last, is certain to escape, because 

 the fly has had wherewithal to satiate its 

 voracious appetite ; and by the time the 

 third in succession comes into leaf, the 

 insects have undergone their transfor- 

 mation. This is also a reason for thick- 

 sowing under peculiar circumstances. 

 Nor is the preservation from the fly 

 all that arises from fully matured seed. 

 If we only take a crop of early Dutch 

 turnip as an example, it will be found 

 that the plants raised from seed of the 

 previous year will be exceedingly prone 

 to run to seed without bulbing ; and 

 should they even do so, the bulbs will 

 be neither so firm nor so well shaped as 

 those from seed of two, three, or more 

 years' saving. The tops, in the former 

 case, will be large, and consequently 

 monopolise for themselves much of the 

 material which ought naturally to have 

 gone to the bulb ; in the latter case the 

 tops will be small, the bulbs large and 

 well formed ; — indeed, the proper prepon- 

 derance will be, in this case, maintained 

 between bulb and leaves. Cauliflower 

 coming prematurely into flower — or what 

 is technically called buttoning, because 

 the abortive flower produced is not much 

 larger than a good-sized button, and seldom 

 worth half as much — may be offered as 

 another example. Many other cases might 

 be given ; these, however, may suffice. 



Returning, however, to how an expert 

 gardener manages with less seed, in pro- 

 portion to his wants, than one of less 



experience, and in a more humble way 

 of business : the former has a gradual 

 succession to maintain, which scarcely 

 admits of separate sowings to supply the 

 niceness of his calculations ; he therefore 

 trusts to the three gradations, in which 

 his seed-bed seldom disappoints him. 

 He acts accordingly, and instead of taking 

 the largest and strongest plants only, he 

 takes part of all the three, and thus fills 

 a much greater space of ground than he 

 who calculates only on one crop, and con- 

 tents himself with the first and strongest 

 plants his bed produces, and, regardless of 

 the others, digs them down, and trusts to 

 another sowing, perhaps a month or more 

 hence ; which sowing, by the way, may 

 suit his looser way of doing business. 

 The gardener who has the superintendence 

 of first-rate gardens is supposed to have a 

 much greater knowledge of the principles 

 of his profession — at least he should have 

 so — than one whose field of operations is 

 limited to a quarter of an acre, and who is 

 often from circumstances ignorant of the 

 rudimentary principles upon which he 

 should act. These and amateurs are the 

 class to which the sin of extravagance and 

 too thick sowing is chargeable, and they 

 in general consume far more seed, from 

 misapplication, than is necessary. Fearful 

 at sowing, either from want of confidence 

 in the seed itself, or from being ignorant 

 of the mode of proving its quality pre- 

 vious to sowing, they console themselves 

 in either case with the certainty of being 

 safe, and therefore sow unreasonably 

 thick. There are, no doubt, on the other 

 hand, some who, from penuriousness, err 

 in sowing too thin, and not taking into 

 calculation the losses by insects, frosts, 

 and the doubtful quality of the seed, 

 which such a class is of all the most like- 

 ly to experience, having purchased cheap; 

 and, in consequence, they find that their 

 crop is a total failure. There is, how- 

 ever, no doubt that thin-sowing is pre- 

 ferable to thick-sowing, so far as the plant 

 is concerned ; and if seeds are to be de- 

 pended upon, and were they of sufficient 

 value to make it a measure of economy 

 to plant them singly, instead of sowing 

 them in the usual manner, there is no 

 doubt, barring accidents, that the former 

 mode would be preferable to the latter, 

 and therefore one quarter of the seed 

 usually ordered would suffice. 



