I.] BAttLE OF THE SEED-BAGS. 37 



the commercial market -gardens of the country. Inquiry 

 of seed -merchants has convinced me that about one- 

 fourthof all the seeds sold in any year go to market-gar- 

 deners. I have therefore multiplied the census figures of 

 market gardens by four for the purpose of arriving at an 

 estimate of the total acreage of the given crops in the 

 United States; and I have introduced the last column 

 from the previous table for purposes of comparison : 



Acreage of Probable 



market-gardens, total acreage. 



Cabbage 77,094 308,376 



Cucumber . . . 4,721 18,884 



Tomato 22,802 91,208 



It will thus be seen that there are enough cabbage 

 seeds raised in this country each year — if the census year 

 is a fair sample — to plant nearly three-quarters of a 

 million acres more than actually are planted; about the 

 same surplus of cucumber seeds; and a surplus of tomato 

 seeds sufficient to plant over one and a quarter million 

 acres. It is possible, of course, that the figures of actual 

 acreage of these crops are too low; but such error, if it 

 occur, must be much overbalanced by the large quanti- 

 ties of home-grown and imported seeds which are used 

 every year. These startling figures would not apply so 

 well to many other crops which are detailed in the cen- 

 sus bulletin. For instance, the peas raised in this coun- 

 try would plant only about 46,000 acres, whilst there are 

 over 100,000 acres actually grown; but this discrepancy 

 is probably accounted for by the fact that the larger part 

 of the seed peas are grown in Canada, and therefore do 

 not figure in our census. There is a somewhat similar 

 discrepancy in the watermelon, but in this crop the seeds 

 are very largely home -saved by the heavy planters in the 

 south and west. I do not give these figures for their 



