1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



239 



commence too early, as earthing up tends in a 

 slight degree, to weaken the growth of the plants. 

 Take care also, not to let the soil get into the 

 heart in earthing, or the crown is apt to rot. 



At this season of the year, more than perhaps 

 at any other, it is important to hoe and rake be- 

 tween the rows of growing crops. A loose surface 

 soil not only admits the various gases that the roots 

 luxuriate in, but it also prevents evaporation 

 and checks a too great absorption of heat, and 

 then, besides all this, the weeds are kept down, 

 and neatness and order reigns. After every 

 heavy shower, if the time can at all be spared, 

 the hoe, and the rake should be freely employed. 



COMMUNIGA TIONS. 



ONION AND SEED GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



BY A. MCM., SAX JOSE, CAL. 



No country in the world produces finer onions 

 than are grown around the Bay of San Francisco. 

 The rich alluvial soil and the peculiarity of the 

 seasons and climate in this part of California 

 seem to be special!}' adapted for growing both the 

 bulbs and the seed of the onion in the greatest 

 perfection. Great quantities of the Yellow Dan- 

 vers and Yellow Dutch are raised chiefly by Portu- 

 guese for the city market. I have been in 

 Egypt and Holland, as well as in Spain, but in 

 none of these lands, the native home of this an- 

 cient deity of the kitchen, have I evev seen 

 onions to excel our California bulbs, either in 

 beauty of form or fineness of flavor. One who 

 has great experience in onion culture, both in 

 the Eastern States and in California, writes in 

 The Pacific Rural Press, that " the onion bulbs 

 produced in California are much more perfect in 

 every particular than any grown elsewhere on 

 this continent. Californian onion seed, when 

 planted in the same field with seed of the same 

 kind of Eastern and Europeangrowth, produces 

 larger and finer onions than the latter, having 

 less scallions and ripening earlier." 



This fact is of especial interest to onion grow- 

 ers, and is, no doubt, to be accounted for by the 

 circumstance that the crop of onion seed us- 

 ually ripens here about a month in advance of 

 seed grown in the East. To test these points, 

 California onion seed has been planted along 

 with the best Connecticut and English grown 

 seed of the same kind, at Rochester, N. Y., and 



Detroit, and the result was such that the seed of 

 California growth was acknowledged to be supe- 

 rior to the seed of Eastern growth, even by those 

 who were considerably prejudiced against it. 

 Our mild winters and genial spring and summer 

 allow the seed vessels of plants to be fully de- 

 veloped and all seeds to be perfectly formed and 

 ripened ; our cold nights rendering them also 

 quite hardy. Then, the long, dry summer, with- 

 out rain, permits of the thorough drying of the 

 seed in the open air. These are advantages 

 which ought to give onion and other vegetable 

 seeds grown in California the same preference in 

 the market that our wheat (seed) now enjoys. 

 The seed farms in the vicinity of this city are 

 carefully cultivated, being o^mied by reliable in- 

 dividuals of intelligence and experience. 



From the large quantity of onion and lettuce 

 seed sent East last year, and the extensive orders 

 received from several of the leading seed estab- 

 lishments of America, it is evident that vegeta- 

 ble seeds, particularly onion and lettuce seed, 

 grown in this State, will soon come to be in great 

 demand as its superior excellence comes to be 

 more generally known. The cost of suitable 

 lands, the expense of labor and freight, and the 

 destructiveness of the "gopher," which is the 

 pest of this fertile land, however, seriously cur- 

 tail the profits of the seed grower in California. 

 But against these he expects to place the superior 

 quality of his seeds, and a rapidly increasing de- 

 mand for them, both in the Northern and South- 

 ern States. The onion growers of California pre- 

 fer seed of native gro^'th to any other, for the 

 most part growing what they require themselves. 



San Jose, Santa Clara Co., Cal., June 3, 1876. 



THE WILD GOOSE PLUM. 



BY E. S. N., CHATTAXOOGA, TENN. 



I see you noticed my letter in the June num- 

 ber, referring to the Peach seed, and desire to 

 know frcSha me " if these seedlings have always 

 very small seeds, all of a uniform size, or whether 

 there are large and small ones, various sizes, as 

 we should suppose." 



You are correct in your supposition. As some 

 of the fruit is large and some small, so also the 

 seeds are in like proportion, large and small. 



A word about the wild goose plum. Mr. Tran- 

 sou, of Humboldt, Tenn., thinks he can solve 

 the difficulty, and says : " This noted plum origi- 

 nated in Tennessee, and is as thick as blackbei-- 



