CHAPTER VIIIc. 

 SEED GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



The commercial production of garden seeds in Cali- 

 fornia was entered upon by the first American vegetable 

 growers as a branch of their business. The difficulty of 

 obtaining supplies from the East and the almost fabulous 

 prices which seeds commanded, acted as a strong incentive 

 to local production. The inventory of Mr. John M. 

 Horner's productions at Alvarado in 1851 included eleven 

 hundred pounds of garden seeds onions, beets and cab- 

 bage. Mr. A. P. Smith, at Sacramento, had twenty acres 

 devoted to seed growing in 1857, and the following record 

 shows that he had been doing a good business for some 

 time before that date : 



"To his vegetable seed department Mr. Smith turned 

 his attention at an early day, and has pursued it till now 

 he devotes to it twenty acres of ground and the time of 

 several laborers, and from it reaps a merited reward. His 

 crop of seeds for the last four years has reached from 

 three to four thousand pounds per annum, which up to 

 1858 averaged about three dollars per pound. They now 

 sell for less." Rep. Cal. Agr. Society, 1858, p. 233. 



Another pioneer seed grower was Mr. D. L. Perkins of 

 Alameda. The record states that he "served a thorough 

 apprenticeship in the business at the East and is quite at 

 home in all general operations connected with his busi- 

 ness." At the State fair in 1860, premiums for garden 

 seeds were awarded to A. P. Smith of Sacramento and to 

 D. L. Perkins of Alameda. The committee reported both 

 exhibits very meritorius and indulged in the prophecy 

 that "the time is at hand when our gardeners will be saved 



