The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-03-22
Seeds Good and Bad.

the seed has much to do with the fu-
ture crop. Oats and wheat are care
fully cleaned from weed seed, and the
heaviest seeds are separated out and
sown for the next crop. 1t is coming
to be understood that "pedigree"
means almost as much in potato, a
strawberry, or corn, as it does in COW
or horse. 1t is one of the wise and
wonderful things which God has placed
in plants this capacity for improvement,
and at this day thousands of men are
working on the problem OF seed i'm
provement. Now we have dwarf Lima
beans, dwarf sweet peas, and improved
varieties of almost, or quite, every kind
of fruit, flower and vegetable. In the
WATcHMAN of March s, we had some
thing to say about. the garden; today
we wish to emphasize the necessity OF
buying only good seeds to put into the
ground. Any one can see the folly of
buying poor seeds, and then 90 to the
trouble of preparing the ground, plant.
ing, taking care of the crop through
the summer, only to get half crop, or
two-thirds one, and that of poor quail
ity, when, had first class seeds been
purchased, the crop would have been
first class, if well taken care of.
There iare two sources of danger to
the user of seeds among the poorer
classes. One is the poor quality of 80
called government seeds,q poorer at
presentl than ever, probably, and the
other cheaply grown seeds. To grow
goodlseeds takes skill, takes expense,
takes lots of pains. For example, one
lot of melon seeds may be gathered up
from any odds and ends of melons
grown in any way, while another lot of
seed may be carefully grown from Sc
lected seed with a pedigree running
back for years. and really costing ten
times as much as the trashimiscalled
cheap seed. No one can afford to buy
the cheap grades of seeds. They are
too cJsuy, disappointing The grower,
causing loss and making trouble all
around.
The government seed distribution
seems to be worse this year than ever.
Ii seems pity that such an absurdity
cannot be put a stop to, but it is not
likely that it ever will. We spoke in our
March s article of the extent of the
seed industry and since writing that
article we have been more deeply i'm
pressed than ever with the care taken
by the best seedsmen TO grow and sell
only the best seeds, and the extent of
their business. One of the best known
seedsmen is w. Atlee Burpee of Phil.
adelphia, and we have learned good
deal from a perusal of his catalogue.
We have never before this spring
given to it much attention, but we
must say that it impresses us as one of
the best, and we feel that we are do
ing our readers favor TO call their at
tention to Burpee's Farm Annual, and
to advise them to send postal for it.
We also advise this: get some va
rieties of seeds from Burpee or some
other of the best seedsmen and plant
them beside government seeds, and
store seeds, that is such as are ordinarily
sold at the stores. Treat all alike and
watch the results. 1t may be an eve
opener to some of our readers and lead
them to be most careful in the future
as to what seeds they put into the
ground. 1t is true that whatsoever a
man sowetb, that shall he also reap.
There are so many people to buy seeds,
there is such keen competition in the
business, that there is great tempta-
ton to sell seeds of poor quality. The
current Mar. 1D number of the Rural
NeW Yorker is the annual catalogue
number, and it contains notices of
more than so catalogues of seeds.
plants, etc, and we know there are
some which are not included. No
doubt some of these seedsmen are of
The cheap kind, aud the only way to be
sure of good seeds is to; buy of reli-
able house.
Another matter should be remem per-
ed: do not SOW the seeds or spores of
'mut with your oats and wheat. Use
he.blue vitriol solution to wet the seed
you are going to SOW, in order to avoid
oss from smut. Test your seed corn
before planting time, putting quanti-
y of corn carefully counted out, into
vet cloth or into box of moist dirt,
nd carefully watching the germina-
ion of the seed. We have known of
cry great loss from planting poor seed
orn. A lot of seed may be good in
terminating quality, but poor in pedi.
rec Corn ia a Dlant which resnopds