St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-12-27
SEEDS.
How to Save Them without Destroying
Their Vitality.

How to Save Them without Destroying
Their vitality.
Mr.. Samuel Lawrence calls attention
to the inconvenience, loss, and vexation
caused by lack of good seed. Its
careful preservation has been urged for
thousands of years and still many per-
sons are both careless and Indifferent
about the matter. Most garden prod
ucts are not perennial, but require
annual care, and hence as each Spring
returns there comes with it the usual
grumbling about worthless seed. This
causes many to make good resolves for
the future but when harvest time comes
the same old neglect is practiced with
Indifference only to be followed by an
other lesson of g sad experience
Growing, gathering and preserving
seed lies at the foundation Of good gar
dening. A person who can not carry
out these operations viii never make a
successful gardener. He will always be
depending on others, and as a natural
consequence will often get fooled.
In selecting seeds, Mr.. Lawrence says,
his experience has been that the best
seed, and the greatest quantity, is OBJ
tanned from a soil that is naturally
good, but not excessively enriched. A
very rich soil in most cases develops
foliage rather than fruit. Seed-plants
should have more space than is general
" allowed them by market growers.
They need plenty of nourishment, light
and air. If deprived of these essentials
the seed will lack fullness, be deficient
in weight and large percentage will
prove abortive.
Plants, and seeds as well, are injured
by intermixture. In this particular few
people grow plants properly or save
seed judiciously. Different classes viii
not readily be affected by cultivation in
the vicinity of each other but different
species of the same class will mix with
great facility. With all botanicaily
allied plants, if to be grown for seed,
the best course is to sow the varieties
well apart from each other.
There seems to be a strange fascina-
ton in size, but it must be remembered
that excellence is not always known by
magnitude. We cultivate the small
fruits to their utmost perfection, but
many of oyer-grown vegetables, as po-
tatoes, beets, radishes or turnips, when
beyond certain dimensions, are almost
worthless for the table. Let the choice
be rather for smoothness and symmetry
than for size. Among the umbelliferous
plants, it is the prevailing opinion that
The central umbel produces the finest
seeds, yet when a sufficient amount of
room is given the side shoots are usually
well developed, and where they mature
in season there can be no serious OBJ
lection to them. Certain rules con-
stantly observed from year to year in
the selection of seed viii make the plant
dwarfish or increase in size. The variety
can be made to mature earlier at ex-s
pense of production, or later with in
creased yield.
Seeds should not be gathered until
fully ripe. After gathering they should
be thoroughly dried and stored in dry
and well ventilated apartments. Large
quantities IN one place should not be
permitted, for however airy and dry the
place may be they are extremely liable
to generate heat and lose their vitality.
Heat or cold which is not artificial will
not lniure seeds, but slight dampness
and degree of heat which they are
often in, will induce the first stage Of
termination or mold, either of which is
sufficient to destroy the vitality of them.
Where the quantities to be kept are not
too great, good way is to wrap them
in strong paper in small parcels, then
inciose in strong bag and suspend
them from the rafters in the attic, tool
boI1sa m. come similar n1ace Jf cared
for in this manner the trouble will be
repaid by lessentng the chance and
making certain the growth Of next
years vegetables Western Rural.