Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

WORK ON A SEED FARM. 83 who are paid so much I a bushel of cleaned (jF • seeds. An overseer ex- amines every sack, and . " milk.' - Ik ' æas : if badly picked it lias to be clone again. The fc. ■? rjlafl seeds properly cleaned, whatever they may be, ‘ are ready for weighing and bagging. T he packeting for retail distribution is done by machinery, and by measures holding given amounts. This opera- tion, like pea picking, is commonly done by girls and women. The packets usually have a brief description of the plant upon them, and in many cases excellent cultural direc- tions also—in fact, everything possible that will assist the cultivator is done. 7. I he area of land required by seed growers is enormous, it being exceedingly difficult—if not impossible—to keep the stocks of seeds true where different varieties of the same kind are grown in adjacent plots. For example, if a bed of long Carrots adjoin a bed of short ones, the pollen from the flowers of one would be carried to the flowers of the other by insects, and this crossing would result in a mixed, and therefore an unsatisfactory, stock. It is the same with other plants; and to obviate danger from this source the plots are distributed as widely as possible over the land, so that the pollen-carrying insect will pass, say, from a carrot to a cabbage, and no cross- ing will ensue. SELECTING MARROWS FOR SEED PURPOSES (carter’s). The aspirant to seed saving may seek some standards of excellence by the close adherence to which he may be enabled to save seeds of conspicuous merit. Mere size does not always constitute excellence; there must also be points that are learned only by ex- perience. Let the grower of plants, whether for home use or for seeds, work to a high ideal, never resting content, and he will be treading in the footsteps of the firms named in this article, who raise plants from seeds to produce seeds, the products always to be equal, and where possible superior, to the originals. HORACE J. WRIGHT. SELECTING CORN FOR SEED (WEBß’s).