Some years ago a party wrote me, offering a variety of garden seed at a very low figure, and stated that it was of his own raising. As it was a kind that I was in the habit of raising, I had the curiosity to write and ask how he could afford to raise it at such a price. He replied that it was of his own growing, but so old as to be good for nothing, and therefore he sold it to seedsmen at a very low figure, to mix with their good seed to _help make weight_! When four pounds of Carrot seed are advised to the acre, for a field crop, I think that some of this kind of seed must somehow have got into the mixture. With everything favoring, and the farmer by experience having his seed sower under perfect control, rather less than a pound of seed will be sufficient for an acre. The great object to aim at is, while having the plants thick enough, not to have much of any thinning to do, as it costs about as much to thin a crop as it does to weed it, with the drawback that the plants left in the ground are more or less started, and so put back by the thinning. As a general rule I would advise one and one-half pounds of seed to the acre, and this the farmer can reduce in proportion as he is favored by circumstances and advances in experience. Twelve inches is a sufficient distance between the rows of the two small, early varieties, and fifteen between the rows of all other sorts. With the greatest of care the seed will not come up with mathematical precision. Some advocate leaving a plant to about every inch of row; others, to thin to four inches apart. With the exception of the shorter variety including the Guerande, which are somewhat like Onions in their aptitude to grow to a good size when crowded, pushing out either side of the rows, as a rule I advise thinning to four inches, leaving them thicker near the vacant places. VARIETIES, AND WHAT KINDS TO GROW.