18 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Drying vegetables has been pursued in a small way for a 

 number of years, and was stimulated to great expectations when 

 the Alaska mining interest arose and packing food over mouri'- 

 tain trails was involved, but whenever transportation routes are 

 established the superior succulence of fresh and canned vegetables 

 discounts the dried product. 



Value of California Vegetable Products. To the California 

 products discussed in this treatise the following acreages and values 

 are assigned by the Census of the United States for the census year 

 1909: 



Acreage. Farm Value. 



Beans, dry 158,137 $6,301,116 



Beets 78,957 4,320,532 



Peas, dry 2,959 101,016 



Potatoes 67,688 4,879,449 



Sweet Potatoes -5,111 355,624 



Other Vegetables 79,163 6,886,885 



Garden Seeds 594,724 



Total $23,439,346 



The total farm valuation of California's fruits and fruit pro- 

 ducts is placed by the same Census at $50,706,869. Thus appears 

 the relation between the two leading branches of horticulture in 

 this state. 



Diversity in Garden Practice in California. It is hardly too 

 much to say that our garden practice is an epitome of an ancient 

 and modern cultural arts, for we have both survival of very old 

 methods and subterfuges and wider demonstrations of the truth of 

 advanced conceptions of cultural efficacy than can probably be 

 found in any other state. This is not due to any purpose or design 

 on the part of our people. It is merely their notable resources of 

 adaptability and ingenuity brought to bear upon the wide range 

 of conditions involved in our combined winter and summer garden- 

 ing which concentrates in a single commonwealth all the diversity 

 one might encounter if he were a peripatetic gardener with an itin- 

 erary extending from Ireland to Algeria. Nor is this remark 

 intended merely as a reference to the natural diversity of the dif- 

 ferent parts of the state, because success may require more or less 

 distinct methods in summer and in winter in the same region. In 

 short, the California gardener has to know arid-land practice and 

 humid-land practice and call them both into requisition equally or 



