344 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September I, 1857. 
Again, it is unfair to throw the whole blame on the 
vendor, for, apart from the penny-wise policy which 
induces people to flock to the cheapest markets, seeds of 
various kinds are subject to so many mishaps that the 
bad quality of the seeds alone is not the only source 
from whence the loss of a crop is to be attributed. The 
seed is liable to be destroyed by many enemies after it 
is sown. Birds of various kinds prey on it to a great 
extent, while mice and the numerous tribes of insects 
prey on the half-germinated seeds with an impunity not 
always understood or duly allowed for. 
Let us, for instance, notice the seeds of the Cabbage 
family. Birds are especially fond of them, and are often 
seen hunting for them in newly-made-up beds. Where 
they are observed so doing it would be advisable to sow 
more seed, and to take some means, by using scarecrows 
or other contrivances, to keep them away, as well as 
sowing wood ashes over the bed, which render the 
seed distasteful. This substance, as well as lime and 
soot, is also a useful preventive to the Turnip fly, an 
insect which greedily devours the young plant wholesale 
when in the seed-leaf. This insidious enemy, however, 
allows the plants to show themselves before it attacks 
them; but their sudden disappearance tells, in unmis¬ 
takable terms, the havoc it is capable of doing. Other 
insects attack the seed while in the ground; but the 
worst, perhaps, is the fly. 
Although the seed of this extensive family has a tough 
husk, capable of resisting a great deal of hardship, it 
certainly does not retain its vitality so long as some 
seeds apparently less protected. It would appear fhat 
the oily substance of which it is in a measure charged 
evaporates, or is otherwise lost, and the vitality of the 
plant is gone. Such seeds as those of the cereals keep 
much longer, and many very small seeds keep a long 
time, the criterion of their keeping qualities resting in a 
measure upon the small quantity of oily or fermenting 
matters which they contain. Though many hardy plants 
present a more vigorous aspect than tender ones the 
vitality of the seed is equally liable to mishaps, and it is 
quite as often in an imperfect state as the other. 
Even some of our native plants do not in all cases 
produce good seeds, there being as many uncertainties 
hanging over the chances of a piece of grass seed 
coming up well as against a seed pan of some tropical 
plant, grass seed especially being an uncertain crop in 
many of the places where it is sown, while wheat and 
most of the other all-important crops emanating from a 
temperate climate are almost certain to produce a crop 
under ordinary circumstances. Nevertheless, as the 
quality of seeds is of the greatest consequence to those 
concerned in the sowing of them, it would be well to 
test them all before sowing, which can easily be done by 
those having any heated structure at work, in which 
small pots containing a given number, say fifty of a fair 
sample of each kind of seed, be sown. The quickness 
and vigour with which these things germinate will 
decide that portion of the seed to be good, while the 
later and more weakly brood will most likely denote the 
old or imperfectly matured seed; but the less the defi¬ 
ciency, of course, the better the sample of seed. In 
Turnip seed the loss ought not to be more than five per¬ 
cent., and I have even seen it less; but any way under 
ten per cent, is not bad. 
In sowing seeds regard must be paid to the season, 
the nature of the soil, and other particulars. In 
general it is best to sow all seeds that are com¬ 
mitted to the ground after the middle of April in soil 
that has been rendered very fine and mellow; and if it 
should be dry the portion immediately in contact with 
the seed should be made rather firm than otherwise, in 
i order to prevent the dry air penetrating too deeply into 
| the ground to the injury of the germinating plant. But 
more early in the season an opener or rougher surface is 
to be preferred, the danger then being that the heavy 
rains of spring might harden and cake the ground, to 
the great injury of the rising crop. In fact, during the 
winter and early spring months the rake is but little 
wanted in the way of dressing ground; but in the sum¬ 
mer, or in very dry weather in spring, it is prudent in 
all cases to have a raked surface to all seed-beds 
which the sun is expected to play much upon. At the 
same time let it be observed that where the ravages of 
slugs are to be feared, or the attacks of the Turnip fly 
to be guarded against, it is better to tread the ground 
firmly, and even beat the surface quite flat with a spade 
or other tool, so as to leave no shelter for these vermin 
to retire into ; and although the ground may not derive 
so much benefit from the fertilising effects of the weather, 
the crop will in all likelihood be in a better condition to 
resist the attacks of the vermin to which it is exposed. 
Various attempts have been made to partially germi¬ 
nate some seeds before committing them to the ground, 
but usually it has not answered. Certainly Peas and 
Dwarf Kidney Beans may be soaked in cold water a 
few hours before sowing in dry Midsummer weather, but 
the ground must also be watered as well in which they 
are sown. Small seeds at that period had better be 
shaded where convenient; and such as lie long in the 
ground, as Celery, Parsley, &c., ought to be sown ear¬ 
lier than when wanted, where the necessary amount of 
bhading and watering cannot be given. At all events 
crops requiring but a small space to germinate upon 
may be humoured and coaxed into growth without any 
great amount of labour where water is handy; but by 
all means let them be shaded afterwards, otherwise it is 
questionable if the evil of watering is not greater than 
the good it does. 
It has been so often explained that most seeds require 
an amount of covering, some four or five times their 
thickness. In winter and in damp places a less cover¬ 
ing would do, only leaving seeds on the surface is very 
tempting to birds, &c., that it is prudent in all cases to 
throw a little earth over them, and if they are raked 
over let them be done so carefully as not to remove the 
seed. When the ground is rough it is good practice, in 
sowing small beds, to bring a little fine earth from some¬ 
where else in which to deposit the seed, and being 
covered up with the same, the better will be the pros¬ 
pects of success. J. Robson. 
NOTES FROM THE CONTINENT.—No. 9. 
POTSDAM. 
One of the pleasantest excursions from Berlin is that to 
Potsdam, “ the town of palaces.” It lies about fifteen Eng¬ 
lish miles from Berlin, upon the line of railway connect¬ 
ing that place with the western German states, Belgium, and 
France. It is astonishing to see how soon the appearance 
of the country begins to improve as the train whirls us 
along. Before we proceed many miles it begins to swell up 
into low sand-banks and ridges, and further on into hills, 
until the landscape becomes really beautiful. The appear¬ 
ance of the crops also improves in an equal degree: the rye, 
which is so dwarf and thin near Berlin, is very much finer 
as we approach Potsdam. Wheat is not at all cultivated 
near here. The banks of the railway cuttings have been 
made into terraces, and planted with Apple and other fruit 
trees, which are tolerably productive. There are many young 
Vines, also, upon the banks facing southward, but they seem 
to have been recently planted, and no opinion can as yet be 
expressed as to the result of the experiment. The railway 
embankments upon some of the English lines are planted 
with ornamental trees and shrubs, and I have often thought, 
while travelling there, that they might, in the neighbourhood 
of large towns, be made useful without destroying their 
beauty. This is an idea worth thinking of, as cheap fruit 
and vegetables are a great blessing to the poor townspeople, 
who usually have no gardens of their own. The hay is all 
