SEED GROWING. 121 



the time, trouble and expense of looking abroad for their 

 seeds." 



It would seem that Mr. Perkins must be credited with a 

 broader conception of the opportunities of California in 

 seed growing than was known to the awarding committee. 

 With them the problem was local supply. Mr. Perkins 

 looked beyond that. In his statement submitted with a 

 claim for a gold medal at the State fair of 1867, he uses 

 these significant words: 



"For the past ten years all my time has been given to 

 the raising of seeds * * * striving to get the best seeds 

 from all parts of the world. During the past three years 

 I have sent collections of seeds to be tested at the East, 

 and the results in size and quality over the same varieties 

 grown at the East have been so marked that several par- 

 ties have ordered from me, thus showing that California 

 can compete with the world for garden seeds. There is 

 no State in the Union so well adapted to the raising of 

 seeds as California. During five years past I have sent 

 samples of my product to Japan, China, Sandwich Islands, 

 Mexico, and to Europe. ' ' Condensed from Rep. Cal. Agr. 

 Society, 1866-7, pp. 228 and 229. 



Probably this statement of Mr. Perkins was the first 

 formal prophecy of the eminence which California would 

 ere long command in the seed markets of the world. It 

 found an echo in the words of Peter Henderson, the vet- 

 eran seedsman and florist, who wrote in 1882 : * ' California 

 will, I am certain, fifty years from now, grow seeds for 

 the world. It has all the conditions of soil and climate 

 for seed growing." The progress attained during the 

 last few years justifies Mr. Perkins' enthusiastic declara- 

 tion and indicates that Mr. Henderson's time limit was 

 certainly conservative and safe, for in certain lines surely 

 such a position has already been realized and in less than 

 a third of his period. 



A New Start. Mr. Perkins did not continue to the 

 demonstration of his problem. His attention was diverted 



