AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 153 



ling plants. The first commercial seed-grower on 

 a large scale was A. P. Smith, near Sacramento. He 

 began as a market-gardener in 1848 for Slitter's Fort 

 and later expanded his operations to meet the miners' 

 and pioneer planters' demand for trees and garden 

 seeds. In December, 1858, this was written of him: 

 "For the past few years he has continually raised 

 tons of the finest seeds, which have been sold in 

 every part of the State, in Oregon and Washington 

 and the Sandwich islands and the annually increas- 

 ing demand for his seeds is a flattering comment 

 upon their value/' 



In June, 1860, this additional statement was 

 made : "For several years, better seeds of all the 

 vegetables that flourish in this latitude have been 

 produced than have been or can be imported; this 

 fact is now among the indisputable ones." 



Greater than A. P. Smith, the pioneer grower, in 

 lines of publicity achievement, was D. L. Perkins, who 

 began growing seeds in 1856 on land now included in 

 the city of Alameda. In 1870 his business had so 

 increased that he himself wrote of it: 



"It has been impossible for me to fill orders for 

 seeds during the last two years. The time was when 

 they would not buy of me, but that prejudice has 

 worn off and they find that the seeds grown in Cali- 

 fornia are better than foreign seeds. Probably there 

 is no State in the Union so well adapted in its soil 

 and climate as California for the raising of seeds; 

 they seem to hold their vitality longer than those 

 grown anywhere else." 



