Local agents : HERBERT AND CO. BUCKEYE HARVESTER COMPANY J3ONI> SRF.BT, I>»TNBDTtr

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1800, 3 June 1891, Page 3

Local agents : HERBERT AND CO. BUCKEYE HARVESTER COMPANY Bond Sreet, Dunedin

The " American Horticulturist " gives the following useful and simple directions for testing seeds:— "Whea you want new seed peas put one from the sfcook into your mouth and bite it. If it is very hard it is more than one year old. If the teeth enter it with moderate ease it is new seed, New carrot seed always has a green shade on it. Old seed loses this, and is of a dead pale brown, and less fragrant. New parsnip seed has a shade of green, which it loses if more than one year old. Onion 'seed is more difficult to prove than most other seeds, but if you take a single seed at a time, and carefully bite it, you will find that old seed has a tough., dry akin, with a very white and harah kernel, while new seed has a more tender, moist skin, and the kernel possesses a greater degree of moisture. The seed may be cut with a penknife instead of bitten. Onion seed that has no vitality at all has no kernel, or one perfectly dry. Teat this by pressing the seed on a, piece of white writing paper. If it leaves no moisture on the paper jfc is o,f no use, a.nd has been tampered with, or has ]ctsfc its vitality by age. New cabbage and broccoli seed possesses a pale green shade in the kernel when pressed out, and a tinge of green iv the brown skin also. But old seed loses thisjin proportion to its age, becoming of a dull, dark brown. Cabbage, broccoli, kales, etc., will retain their vitality longer than any other seeds, aad will grow well when three years Qld, or even six years, if well kept r I^eefc seed has a faint tinge qf pale green \f new, but is a dnll brown if old, and its. vitality is very doubtful if old, New celery seed ha.s a faint tinge of green, a.nd fa very arotaatic, bi\t it lo^es the green and becomes less fragrarit if more than a yea* Qld,audi3dQttbtfuV