One who has soil and climatic conditions espe cially adapted to the growing of some particular vegetable, and who is familiar with its culture, but who is situated where he cannot handle profit ably the ordinary farm product, can frequently grow seed to advantage. The cultural require ments of a seed crop are not different from those of a crop for market except in the harvesting and curing of the seed, and these features are not especially laborious or expensive. Careful attention and the doing of the work at the proper time are the real essentials. Sweet corn, peas and beans are grown and the seed harvested and cured in the same way and at no greater ex pense than is required for a crop of the grain, except that it is more important to gather, cure and handle these in such a way as to secure a bright sample and to avoid mixing in seed from other crops. The yields that may be expected vary greatly with different varieties, but generally are a little less than those of field sorts. The prices paid are usually somewhat higher, so that the seed crops are often more profitable than the grain crops.
With tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and other pulpy fruits, the fruits are allowed to ripen and the early-maturing ones to get a little over-ripe but not soft, so that the bulk of the crop can be gath ered in one to three pickings. The fruit is crushed by passing through rollers, and the seeds are sepa rated from the skins and coarse pulp in a slowly revolving cylinder of wire netting of such size as to allow the seed and fine pulp to pass through, while the skin and coarse pulp pass out at the end. The cylinder is set at an angle and revolves slowly so that the seed will all be shaken out into a vat or into a simple board-lined pit in the ground, and only the coarse pulp pass out at the open end of the cylinder. The seed and liquid pulp is then allowed to ferment for a few days, care being taken that there is no water or rain added while fermenting. As soon as the mass is sufficiently soured so that the seed will slip clear of the pulp (2 to 10 days, according to temperature), it is sep arated and washed by passing it through a trough or sluice box of slowly-moving water. The seed settles to the bottom to be removed by perforated scoops, while the pulp floats off and away. The seed is then rapidly dried by spreading very thinly and stirring. If the seed is allowed to stand in a mass when wet, it will speedily be discolored or rot and become worthless for seedsmen.
The cost of separating and curing the seed after the fruit is gathered is much less than one would suppose, and with the best conveniences need not exceed five to ten cents a pound, according to va riety. Very little special machinery is required in
vegetable seed-growing, and most of this can be constructed on the farm.
In Fig. 226 is shown a side view of a horse power machine for seeding cucumbers, melons, summer squashes, tomatoes and other pulpy crops. The cut shows the machine ready for work, except that the reel is shown without the wire netting with which it should be covered. This netting should be of stout wire and of one-half-inch mesh, or a little larger. The reel is about three and one half feet in diameter and six feet long. Its upper end is formed of two common bent felloes of buggy wheels, bolted together so as to break joints ; the lower end has no rim except the selvage edge of the piece of wire netting. The reel is built on a shaft connected with the trundling rod from the power and the shaft of the roller by knuckle joints. These allow the reel to be given any desired incli nation by raising or lowering the journal block in the jack which supports the lower end. The vat is simply a hole in the ground lined with boards so as to keep dirt out of the seeds but allow the juice to soak away into the soil. In practice the vat should be made deeper than is shown and have guard boards to prevent the seeds and juice flying from the reel out on the ground. It will be neces sary to set the machine where there will be no danger of rain or other water soaking or running into the vat. In Fig. 227 the same machine is shown with the hopper and reel taken off, and the frame tipped forward to show the rollers as if we were looking down on them. The rollers should be made of hard wood, and are about sixteen inches long and twelve inches in diameter, having eight grooves about three inches wide and one and one half inches deep, cut with a spiral of one cog. The teeth or cogs are about one and one-half inches wide and would be better if faced with strap iron. The rollers might be made of soft wood and the teeth faced with iron, but they would be much in ferior to those of hard wood. The bolts which secure the journal block, in which the left-hand roller turns, should move in slots in the frame so that the rollers can be set different distances apart. For cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons, it will be found best to set the rollers as close as possible without injuring the seeds ; but as open as possible and still turn, for summer squash and muskmelons. The frame is made of 4 x 4, and may be of pine. Fig. 228 illustrates the machine in action. in Fig. 229 is pictured a table on which cucumbers may be seeded.