The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-09-22
Preserving Seeds.

In the first place, only the best spec
linens of each kind should be saved and
all inferior ones rejected; this is easy
enough with such plants as squashes,
cucumbers. tomatoes, melons, ETC.,
care being used to save only the earli-
est, fairest and most perfect specimens.
The seed should be allowed to ripen
thoroughly before taking it from the
fluit, which will require some weeks
with squashes, after gathering from the
vine; tomatoes are placed in the sun
for few days, and melon seed may be
taken directly when the melon is fit to
eat; seeds of this nature having feshy
pulp are usually cleaned by allowing
them to ferment in water for day or
two, when the pulp will easily wash of,
after which the seed is spread upon o
sheet in the sunshine to dry. Some :.
times the fermentation is allowed to go
too far and the seed is spoiled, hence
some care and experience are needed
to clean seed in this way, and some
persons prefer To wash the seed direct
ly from the pulp without fermenting;
this ensures good seed, but it is almost
impossible to make it perfectly clean
without fermenting.
The seeds of the squash and all vines
easily mix with others of the same fam
lily in the neighborhood, SO that when a
variety is to be kept pure and true to
name, it must be planted quite remote
from any others of the same family.
The mixing is done by the bees, who
carry the pollen from flower to flower,
often quarter of mile. It is quite
difficult to grow good squash seed near
pumpkin field for this reason, and not
more than one kind of melon or cucum-
Der can be grown in the same field, and
have the seed pure.
Tomatoes, corn aud beans mix less
readily, but should be kept separate by
some rods when pure seed is required.
Seeds of vines keep longer if not al
lowed to freeze; they will preserve their
vitality five or six years if kept in q
warm dry place. A closet near a CHM
ney is good place, and since mice and
rats are very fond of such It'd bits as
melon seeds, it will be advisable to lock
them up in tin chest or other rat proof
arrangement; l know of nothing so pro-
voking as to find some paper Of choice
seed all shelled out by the mice just at
planting time, when it is often impossi-
BILE to replace it, and when delay is al
ways vexatious and expensive.
When saving seeds OF beets, cabbage,
turnip, etc., those who are most par
ticular reject all but the seed grown on
the leading stem. Beet seed IS cleaned
by threshing, sitting and picking over
to get out the sticks; it varies much in
size and should be separated by sieve
in order to have it run evenly through
the seed drill, for it is the most trouble
some of all seed to SOW evenly.
When it is desirable to mix two sorts
of corn, tomatoes, beans, etc., in order
to get a new sort combining the good
qualities of both, alternate rows of
each kind are planted alongside, and
the seed taken from either, will con-
tain more or less of the character of
both; it will not be true new variety,
however, until it has been grown 10y it.
self for some years; at first it will sport
more or less, and breed back to the old
stock of one side or the other. 1t is
thus that our best varieties of new vege-
tables are produced.
Seeds of all kinds keep best in dry,
even temperature. When to be kept in
large lots they may be put in bags and
hung from the ceiling of the room, to
keep them from the mice. Most seeds
are good for two to five years if care
fully kept; onion seed, however, is very
inferior after the first year, and worth
less after the second. When old seed
is to be used, it should be previously
tested by sowing a counted lot in a hot
bed or other suitable place, and count
ing the number of plants that come up,
and noting the vigor of the plants; the
plants from old seed are usually less
vigorous than from fresh seed, and
sometimes are so weak as to be worth
less. W. D. PhilbricE, in New England
Farmer.