SEED GROWING. 123 



area is devoted to seed growing, an estimate the total 

 acreage in the State of the usual California grown list of 

 seeds, is about 6500 acres, approximately divided as fol- 

 lows: Carrots, about 250 acres; celery, about 100 acres; 

 cucumbers, about 150 acres; endive, about 50 acres; 

 parsley, about 50 acres; parsnips, about 25 acres; radish, 

 about 500 acres; onions, about 3000 acres; lettuce, about 

 750 acres; salsify, about 50 acres; tomatoes, about 100 

 acres; spinach, about 100 acres. In flower seeds, sweet 

 peas, about 1250 acres; nasturtiums, about 25 acres, and 

 considerable breadths of asters, balsam, poppy, phlox, 

 sunflowers, mignonette, verbena, etc. The smaller seeds of 

 flowers are not grown extensively, and are still largely 

 imported. 



The coast valleys of California afford conditions favor- 

 ing seed growing in a high degree. The only seed farms 

 of any considerable production are located in Los An- 

 geles, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, and Santa Clara coun- 

 ties, the latter claiming fully 75 per cent of the total 

 acreage. 



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, afterward for distant sale. In spite of the 

 Eastern plaudits which Mr. Perkins won for his seed, as 

 already stated, it was a difficult undertaking to induce 

 Eastern dealers to use it largely at first. When Mr. Wil- 

 son offered his first crop of onion seed in the East, scarcely 

 any one would touch it, and some who did claimed after- 

 ward 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 



