We have received from different directions catalogues of seeds,
flowers, and fruits. Instead of a mere mention of them, we shall
employ them as _texts_ for some remarks on the departments to which
they belong.
The kinds, and varieties of the same kind of vegetables advertised are
satisfactory. Then there is evidence that the easily besetting sin of
seed establishments has been resisted and very much overcome, viz.: _a
prodigal multiplication of varieties_. Now we do not wish to tie down
a seedsman to only one variety of cucumber—one pea—one bean; for there
is great advantage in having many varieties of the same vegetable.
Some love mild radishes, and some love the full peppery taste; as both
qualities cannot exist in the same variety it is desirable to have
two. But some radishes which do admirably in the spring and early
summer, lose their good qualities if planted in summer. We therefore
seek and find a summer variety. This again fails for late autumnal
use, and we procure a (so called) winter sort. We need one pea for its
_earliness_: but early fruit seldom has size or a high flavor; we
desire other varieties, therefore, for flavor, even though, in giving
them a longer period to perfect their juices, we have a late pea. But
some men raise peas for _market_, and cannot afford to raise a pea
merely because fine-flavored, unless also it is _prolific_. Then, once
more, market peas must be raised, usually as a _field-pea_, and sown
broadcast. Some peas stand up stronger than others, and these are of
course preferred. Now, as we cannot find any vegetable that combines
all the qualities of _earliness_, _size_, _flavor_, and adaptation to
variety of soil and diversity of cultivation, we come as near to it as
possible, by gaining _varieties_, in which some one or more of these
qualities are better developed than in any others. The reasons for
multiplying varieties afford a rule by which they may be limited.
The fact that a seed is a variety different from all others is no good
reason for retaining or cultivating it; it must, in SOME _respects,
surpass others_ now in use, or it only encumbers the garden. What is
the use of ten varieties of peas ripening at the same time of one
size, and differing from each other in not one assignable particular?
When a catalogue enumerates _fifty varieties_ of cabbage, or pea, or
bean, are we to believe that each of the _fifty_ has a virtue peculiar
to itself? If not, if two-thirds of them have no merit which is not
found, and found in a higher degree, in the one-third they have no
business to be retained. Let the one-third, stand and the rest be
erased. We regard a _very_ fat catalogue as we do a very fat man—all
the worse for its obesity. In comparing catalogues, we are not left as
much without an authoritative standard of judgment, in respect _to a
proper extension of the number of varieties_, as might at first
appear. English gardening has been carried to such a degree of
excellence, both as an art and as a science, that we may regard the
deliberate judgment of the best gardeners as law on this subject. When
Loudon published his invaluable “Encyclopedia of Gardening,” he was
permitted by the London Horticultural Society to avail himself of the
services of the distinguished Monro in the department of culinary
vegetables.
Let us compare the catalogues of three first rate seedsmen as it
respects a multiplication of varieties, with Mr. Monro’s selections:
+--------+--------+-----+------+----+------+-------+----+-----+-------+
| |Cucumber|Melon|Celery|Beet|Turnip|Cabbage|Peas|Beans|Lettuce|
+--------+--------+-----+------+----+------+-------+----+-----+-------+
|Landreth| 2 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 8 |
| +--------+-----+------+----+------+-------+----+-----+-------+
|Breck | 9 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 22 | 18 | 20 | 24 | 12 |
| +--------+-----+------+----+------+-------+----+-----+-------+
|Prince | 17 | 25 | 8 | 9 | 30 | 49 | 47 | 61 | 56 |
+--------+--------+-----+------+----+------+-------+----+-----+-------+
Mr. Monro names _nineteen_ kinds of peas only, instead of
_forty-seven_: _twenty-two_ kinds of beans instead of _sixty-one_;
seven varieties of turnip instead of _twenty-two_, or, worse yet,
_thirty_; _fourteen_ sorts of lettuce, instead of _fifty-two_.
To the uninitiated a catalogue may look meagre with only _eight_ kinds
of lettuce instead of _fifty_; _fifteen_ beans instead of _sixty-one_,
etc., but these corpulent catalogues make meagre pockets, except in
the case of the _seedsman_. A much greater latitude of varieties is
allowable in a nursery catalogue than in a seedsman’s list. But in
even these there is a disposition to extravagance which needs to be
corrected. Where the disproportion of knowledge between the buyers and
seller is so great as it is, and for some time, must be, in
horticultural matters, it becomes nurserymen and seedsmen who _are_
honest (and we have many such, and they are increasing)—those who
regard their business as an honorable branch of _science_, as well as
a proper means of livelihood, and who hope to gain a high
_reputation_, even more than they do wealth, it becomes such to render
the lists SELECT; and while the monstrously bloated catalogues of
boasting and avaricious men continue to perplex and deceive the
unwary, let all intelligent cultivators _sustain_ those who rely on
the _quality_ rather than _quantity_ of their articles.