Having the plan of work all settled, the next thing is to know what is to be grown, the varieties of each that are best adapted to the situation and soil of the garden, and where they can be procured of the best quality. Under this head come the seeds needed for the vegetables and the roots, tips and runners for the plantings of small fruits. This should be done as soon as convenient, as I have found by experience it is a great saving to have the entire supply of seeds on hand a week or two before it is possible to begin planting. This is an important item, as I have sometimes lost my crop from planting inferior seed purchased at the last moment from the commissioned seeds that are sold in the country stores. It does not pay to economize or try to garden with poor seeds; it is a waste of time and labor in planting, and a waste of ground and manure, as the inferior vegetables raised will hardly cover the original cost of the seed. The gardener who sells his products, unless his crops are of the best, will soon find his trade falling off, and will be compelled to seek new customers each market day. Personally, I have found it more satisfactory and productive of better results to buy each season almost all the seeds needed from some reliable seedsman, rather than to depend on those of my own saving. For instance, such as peas, sweet corn and other vegetables, where the earlier the crop is ready to market the greater the profit; these mature much earlier if the seed is procured from reliable seedsmen who have their supplies grown in the North. Such northern grown seeds retain their instinct to hurry up and mature in a short season, while in one’s own saving they begin even in the first year to grow more leisurely and to accommodate themselves to the longer season. In the case of peas, those grown in Northern New York and Canada, such as are sold by all our leading seedsmen, will mature from one to two weeks earlier than those saved in our own neighborhood. The northern peas are also generally free from the weevil or striped bug, which bores the large round hole in all the home-saved peas and destroys their germinating power. So it is with almost every known variety of vegetable; each has some special locality in which it reaches a higher degree of perfection than in others less favorably situated. While, of course, these facts are of interest to the gardener, they are only learned after years of experience, and it is the seedsman’s business to know the peculiarities of the different varieties, and to raise or procure his stock from the best strains grown in the most favorable localities. It is for the gardener to purchase from a seedsman whom he knows to be thoroughly reliable, and whose interest it will be to serve him with prompt shipments and carefully-selected strains of the vegetables desired. All this is equally true of the nursery-man or small-fruit grower from whom the supply of roots and plants is to be purchased.