Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-08-08
Save the Best Seeds.

AS the various grain and vegetable
seeds ripen, the best in each class
should be selected for seed. To get
sound seed true to name, fresh and
sure to grow, is not only a difficult
matter, but it is expensive as we'll.
Scarcely gardener or farmer but an
nually spends from SO to $50 per
year for seeds that he could just as
well raise himself and at little eI-
pense. The main point is to be accu-
rate and careful, selecting the best
specimens, drying the seed properly,
and then placing each kind OF seed in
paper sacks properly labeled, and
putting them in cool closet, free Of
mice, for safe keeping until wanted
for use the following spring. The
best and earliest tomatoes, peppers,
canteloups, watermelons and squash
should be allowed to ripen fully, the
seeds carefully removed, washed out
and placed on cloths and allowed to
dry out in the sun, and then neatly
tied up and put away, as suggested
above.
For the past five years l have saved
all my seed potatoes, and l find it
pays me to do it. Instead Of getting,
as formerly did, seventy or eighty
bushels of potatoes from the North, L
get six or eight bushels of the best
variety Beauty of Hebron / have
this season.. l plant these, give extra
cultivation, taking sod ground with
out manure, using dissolved bone in
stead. When ripe, the potatoes are
plowed out, and the largest, smooth
est and finest selected. These pota-
toes are spread thinly in cool, dark
cellar until the last of November.
They are then put in long, narrow
pits made on high ground. These
pits are eighteen inches wide and the
same in depth. The potatoes are put
in level with the surface, and covered
two feet in depth with earth, trench
made around the pit carrying OIL the
surface water. Treated thus, they
come out fresh, crisp and free of
sprouts, with all their vitality stored,
ready to make a vigorous growth and
a good crop, if proper soil and cult
walton are had. Such seed is worth
double what ordinary seed can be had
for. Good parsnip, carrot, beet and
onion seed are always scarce, and the
price high, and when gotten not al
ways sure to come up. Any one can
knows how to cultivate and grow
these vegetable seeds. When the
blossoms appear, clip off all the small
side-fowers, and in this way only the
best and largest seeds will be formed
and allowed to come to maturity.
When nearly ripe, clip off the seed
punches early in the morning, and
place on canvas or strong brown pa
per, and allowed to remain in the sun
until we'll dried out, then clean,
spreading them out in a cool, airy
room for few days more, then put
them carefully away. Bunch and
pole beans should be grown especially
for seed. Drop the bunch beans thin
ly along the row. Allow only three
lima beans to the pole, and select only
those pods that have four beans each.
In this way u superior strain of seed
can be secured, worth all the extra
cost and labor in getting them. Some
of the finest and most favored flower
seeds can be raised after the same
manner; such as, lady-slipper, mari
gold, mignonette, asters and chrysan-
themums, and many other varieties.
1t takes little time, and it is some
trouble, but it is well worth it all.
In growing seeds of any kind, it is
we'll to remember that the soil must
be fertile (manured the year previous
ly, if possible) and clean, and careful
cultivation given.