SEED- GROWING. 



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department, are staked or marked in a particular way, so that 

 there may be no difficulty in recognising the higher qualities 

 when the selecting or seed-saving time comes round. The 

 harvesters then cut or remove those, and only those thus 

 marked, without the necessity of themselves having any intimate 

 knowledge of the qualities of the plant most to be desired. 

 This process costs time, labour, and incessant care, but the 

 manifold subsequent advantages may be easily seen. And 

 between such methods and the haphazard sow and reap a 

 vast gulf may be discerned, and hence the varying prices for 

 seeds which may bear practically the same name. 



Seed- growing by cross fertilisation — that is, by artificial or 

 hand fertilisation — I will merely touch on. This method is 

 adopted when it is desired to cross two varieties each of which 

 possesses certain good qualities which are lacking in the other, 

 the object being to combine and reproduce as far as possible in 

 one plant the good qualities of both parents. It is also practised 

 on certain classes of plants grown under such conditions or 

 blooming at such seasons as preclude the possibility of their 

 being fertilised in the usual way. Many of our choice flowers 

 would produce little or no seed but for the adoption of this 

 method. The begonia is a good illustration of this class of 

 plants, which also includes petunias, primulas, and others. 



Heredity is particularly strong in plant life, and all plants 

 that have been improved and brought by human diligence and 

 skill to their present state of perfection have a tendency, when 

 opportunity occurs, to revert to (or towards) their original form, 

 and this the grower must ever be on his guard to prevent. A 

 prominent American seedsman says, " Eternal vigilance is the 

 price of safety." 



Some subjects readily yield themselves to the process of 

 improvement ; others, again, are very obstinate. Take, for 

 example, a variety of calendula to which I have given close 

 attention for many years with the view of fixing a particular 

 type. The lemon-coloured variety responds readily, but the 

 orange has proved a very ungovernable subject. I have re- 

 peatedly saved seeds from plants bearing flowers of almost 

 perfect form and colour — every inferior plant being carefully 

 thrown away. The following season would see from such seed 

 a batch of plants bearing flowers of all shades from deep orange 



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