t to the desired type, and which show the least
variation. From it plants are selected in the same way and to the same
type as the previous year. It is better to make selections from such a
block than to take the most superior plants from all of the blocks, or
from one which produced but one or but a few superlative ones, the rest
being variable.

It is also well to consider the relative importance of different
qualities in connection with the degree to which the different lots
approach the ideal in these respects. Such a course of selection
intelligently and carefully carried out will give, in from three to five
years, strains of seed greatly superior and better adapted to one's own
conditions than any which it is possible to purchase. A single or but a
very few selections may be made each year, and the superior value of the
seed of the remainder of the seed blocks for use in the field will be
far more than the cost of the whole work.

=Growing and saving commercial seed.=--The ideal way is for the seedsman
to grow and select seed as described above and give this stock seed to
farmers who plant in fields and cultivate it, much as is recommended for
canning, and save seed from the entire crop, the pulp being thrown away.
Only a few pickings are necessary and the seed is separated by machines
worked by horse power at small cost, often not exceeding 10 cents a
pound. They secure from 75 to 250 pounds per acre, according to the
variety and crop, and the seedsmen pay them 40 cents to $1 a pound for
it. Some of our more careful seedsmen produce all the seed they use in
this way; others buy of professional seed growers, who use more or less
carefully grown stock seed. In other cases when the fruit is fully ripe
it is gathered, and the seeds, pulp and skins, are separated by
machinery; the seed is sold to seedsmen, the pulp made into catsup, and
only the skins are thrown away. Still others get their supply by washing
out and saving the seed from the waste of canneries. Such seed is just
as good as seed saved _from the same grade of tomatoes_ in any other
way, but the fruit used by the canneries is, usually, a mixture of
different crops and grades, and even of different varieties, and
consequently the seed is mixed and entirely lacking in uniformity and
distinctness of type.

Generally from 5 to 20 per cent. of the plants produced by seed as
commonly grown either by the farmer himself or the seedsmen, though they
may be alik