VARIETIES OF SEEDS GROWN 309 



other producers who have achieved most creditable results in the 

 development of specialties which have given them wide reputations 

 and contributed to the fame of the state in advanced horticulture. 



It will be impossible to adequately describe California seed 

 growing in a single chapter. Only a few salient facts can be 

 mentioned. 



Onion Seed. This seed has held the leading place in California 

 seed growing from the very beginning at first for local use, after- 

 ward for distant sale. In spite of the eastern plaudits which Mr. 

 Perkins won for his seed, as already stated, it was a difficult under- 

 taking to induce eastern dealers to use it largely at first. When Mr. 

 Wilson offered his first crop of onion seed in the east, scarcely any 

 one would touch it and some who did, claimed afterwards that the 

 bulbs grown from it were soft, would not keep and were inferior; 

 The next year Mr. Wilson sent quite a quantity of the seed to a 

 dozen or more of the leading dealers, who planted it beside eastern 

 seed. In the fall Mr. Wilson went east and personally inspected 

 the crops, compared the bulbs and was able to show that in every 

 instance California seed produced as good onions as that they had 

 been using before. From that time on California onion seed has 

 constantly grown in favor, and this state has become almost the 

 only source of supplies, though there are places in Connecticut and 

 Pennsylvania where a considerable amount is still grown. This 

 popularity secured a price which was quite profitable, and many 

 grew onion seed too many in fact, for there has been a disastrous 

 overproduction for the last two years. 



Lettuce. Lettuce seed is a leading crop with California seed 

 growers. The climate of some parts of the coast valleys is admirably 

 adapted to it. It requires careful, painstaking work to maintain 

 choice varieties. Unfortunately, the plant seeds most freely in a 

 semi-wild condition and some of the less critical growers have al- 

 lowed it to grow in this way, thereby increasing yield and profit. 

 The careful grower proceeds with cultivation fitted to retain the 

 characters of the variety, thins out the plants so that each will form 

 a perfect head and be true to the type, and then the heading or cab- 

 bage varieties must have the head cut open with a knife to allow 

 the seed stem to come through ; otherwise the plant will rot without 

 running to seed. This method of growing is not conducive to a 

 large seed product, but it improves the strain, while the work of the 

 careless grower tends to reversion. 



