SEEDS AKD SEED RAISING. 91 



But the great majority of seeds used are raised here, our 

 climate being particularly well adapted for maturing 

 them. In the raising of market vegetables, near large 

 cities, the usual practice is for each grower to grow only 

 a few varieties, and these of the sorts most profitable to 

 his location or soil. For example, we of New Jersey, in 

 the immediate vicinity of New York, grow Beets, Cab- 

 bages, Cauliflowers, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Radishes and 

 Turnips as a first crop, followed by Celer/, Thyme, 

 Sage, Broccoli and late Cabbage as a second crop ; but in 

 the more southern counties of the State, where crops ma- 

 ture ten or twelve days earlier, but the distance greater 

 from market, the bulkier and cheaper articles are not 

 grown, and only the more portable and (when early) 

 valuable kinds are raised, of which Tomatoes, Melons, 

 Peas, Kidney Beans, Early Turnips and Beets are the 

 staple articles. 



Seed growing, as practiced by market gardeners, is on 

 much too small a scale to make it profitable ; in fact, 

 there is hardly a seed raised, but costs much more than 

 what it can be purchased for from the seedsmen. Seeds- 

 men are supplied by regular seed growers, who make a 

 special business of it ; they are located in nearly every 

 State in the Union, as the proper geographical distribu- 

 tion of where seeds are grown, is found to be of the first 

 importance ; tropical seeds, such as Melons, Cucum- 

 bers, Egg plants, and Tomatoes, doing better in higher 

 temperatures, while Cabbages, Peas, etc., do better in 

 colder latitudes. California is becoming an important 

 seed growing State, its climatic conditions being favor- 

 able for nearly all kinds of seeds. Seed growers, as a 

 whole, are a highly responsible class of men, who thor- 

 oughly understand the business, and are now successfully 

 competing with the English and French growers, from 

 whom, only a few years ago, nearly all our seeds were 

 imported. By being able to get the seeds grown in our 



