THE POTATO 411 



foothills was originally embraced in a Mexican 

 land grant. In 1874 this was bought by the Lom- 

 poc Valley Land Company, subdivided and the 

 town laid out. The land was sold in compar- 

 atively small acreages, principally to people from 

 Santa Cruz — a town farther north on the coast. 

 One of the old Franciscan Missions (La Purissima) 

 is in this valley. 



The Lompoc Valley is surrounded by hills 200 to 

 300 feet high. At the coast, or at the mouth of the 

 valley, the elevation is forty-five feet; at Lompoc, 

 nine miles inland, it is ninety-three feet. Because 

 of the ocean breezes the climate is cool and moist 

 during the entire year. The highest average 

 monthly temperature for twelve years is 75 degrees 

 (for August), and the lowest 44 degrees (for De- 

 cember). The average annual rainfall is eighteen 

 inches, practically all in the winter. There are dry 

 spells some years when irrigation would be bene- 

 ficial, but good cultivation, in connection with the 

 cool climate and sea breezes and fogs, is generally 

 sufficient to mature maximum crops Grains, 

 potatoes and many seed crops grow to perfection, 

 because there is no excessively hot weather. 

 Mustard (German and English) is grown com- 

 mercially, and W. Atlee Burpee, the Philadelphia 

 seedsman, selected this as ideal for growing sweet- 

 pea and other seeds. A farm, with Edwin Lons- 

 dale in charge, has been started by this concern for 

 growing seeds commercially. 



The Pacific Garden of July, 1910, says that the 

 summer temperature is so low that Lima beans do 

 not mature seed. A temperature of 85 degrees is 

 considered very high and 20 degrees very low. 



The district is one of small farms, forty acres 

 being an average size. L. F. Shanklin is one of the 



