The Portland daily press., 1874-09-28
THE PRES S.
MONDAY MORNING, SEPT. %, 1877
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Seed Saving.


or to save in so far as he may be able his own
garden and field seeds. As matter of econ
omy he should do this, but, what is more i'm
portant, he should do it that he may be sure
OF being provided with reliable seeds. De-
pending upon seeds purchased at the grocery
and the ordinary sale stores throughout the
country, at the best, is practice which is at
tended with much uncertainty of results.
You may procure good seeds, fresh and
prompt to germinate, or you may get some of
the old stock of seeds, slow to germinate, or
that will fail altogether.
But provided your seeds are fresh and quick
to germinate, you may not be much better
OIL. You may, for instance, have onion seed
raised from scullions and be gladdened, or
rather mGddened, with the sight of a fine bed
OF young scullions. Perhaps you have cab
bage seed raised from cabbages that were un-
marketable because they would not head.
Behold! you have expended your energies
upon thrifty crop of like plants, which re-
fuse' also, to head. Or you may have given
your utmost care and attention to raising a
few cauliaowers. But your labor proves una
vaing, and you conclude that caulifowers
must indeed be very difficult to raise and that
you had better buy yours in the future.
Thus we might run through with the en-
tire list of garden aud field seeds. A great
many gardens are not worth half as much as
they ought to be, just because inferior seed is
used in planting them. 1t is useles, to at
tempt TO have good garden or aprofitable
field crop unless you can be sure Of good seed
to start with. 1t is not good policy to pur-
chase seeds of irresponsible dealers. Either
purchase of scotsman upon whom you knoao
you can rely or else raise your own seed and
know what its parentage was and what its
treatment has been.
Every tiller of the soil can raise little
seed of extra quality better than one man
can raise equally as good seed for thousands.
Select the best of every thing for seed so that
the next crop may be better than the present.
'Like producers like" IF you have nice ex-
ira heads of cabbage which come near being
your ideal of what cabbage should be, save
part of them for seed-that is just the kind of
cabbages that you want to raise. And how
can you be more sure of raising them than to
sow the seeds of such? If you have a fine
bed of onions free from scullions, smooth
skinned, compact and tender-just what you
know onions should be, in order to be about
right-then save some Of these and raise your
own seed, and make them better and better
every year, by saving the best each year. If
you desire to have very early cucumbers, save
few Of the earliest and best shaped ones
for seed-not wait and take some of the later
growth.
In eating your melons, if you find some
which are superior to the rest in flavor and
delcacy of aroma, save the seeds of them
and try to raise more like them next year.
If in cooking your squashes, you find that
some of them are better for eating than
others, save the seeds and produce the same
kind next year. In like manner save seeds
Of all kinds for your own use and a few for
your neighbors if convenient. In this way
a great improvement might soon be intro
duced into our gardens and much money be
saved which is now worse than thrown away,
in producing those seeds which require time
and care, and occupy the valuable land
without remunerating the gardens.
Seeds for the garden should be thoroughly
dried but not by raising the temperature Of
the air, for If you do that it will injure their
vitality. The conditions for preservation of
seeds are lowness of temperature, dryness
and exclusion of the air. Heat and moisture
will either. germinate the seeds or destroy
their vitality. Vegetable seeds after they are
well dried may be wrapped in coarse paper
aud put loosely into coarse cloth bags and
and hung in cool and airy places.
If apple, pear and ounce seeds are exposed
to the air the rind becomes so hard and
rigid as to make termination impossible, or
at least very difficult, from merely mechani-
cal resistance. 1t is better to place them in
earth to preserve them moist through the
winter.
A little intelligent care will enable every
one to save the best Of seed for his own use
and insure good crops. II. r.