Ju-NH 29, 1922 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



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GOLDEN STATE'S SEED CROPS 



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GROWING SEED IN CAUFORNIA. 



Distinct Districts. 



As a California industry, seed grow- 

 ing suffers by comparison in cultural 

 volume with other horticultural lines, 

 such as citrous fruits, almonds, wal- 

 nuts, raisins, prunes and apricots, the 

 general fruit canning business, and even 

 vegetable shipping. As compared with 

 other seed growing- districts, here and 

 in Europe, it is, however, of large pro- 

 portions. 



California is a long state and one of 

 a great variety of climates, elevations 

 and soils. The oldest seed growing dis- 

 trict is the Santa Clara valley, in and 

 about the town of Santa Clara, a town 

 of some 5,000 inhabitants, fifty miles 

 south of San Francisco. None of the old 

 locations is now used for seed grow- 

 ing, but there are some seed farms in 

 the Santa Clara valley. Most of the 

 growers have gone about thirty-five 

 to fifty miles south of Santa Clara 

 to Gilro'y, San Juan, San Felipe and 

 Hollister. Here is grown most of the 

 lettuce, radish, parsley and salsify and 

 about fifty per cent of the onion seed. 

 This district is What we designate as 

 part of the coast valleys, since the dis- 

 trict lies to the west of the coast range 

 of mountains. Farther over and nearer 

 the ocean are now grown sweet peas and 

 and culinary peas. Still farther south 

 and still along the coast are the large 

 flower and seed farms at Arroyo Grand^, 

 Guadaloupe and Lompoc. Here are also 

 grown large areas of sweet peas. Still 

 farther south and along the coast is the 



One of the most informative and in- 

 teresting of the papers presented at the 

 convention of the American Seed Trade 

 Association, at Chicago last iveek, this 

 description of "Vegetable Seed Growing 

 in California," as it was entitled, is by 

 Lester L. Morse, of San Francisco, Cul., 

 whose broad knowledge and keen insight 

 have-won him an outstanding position in 

 the seed trade. 



lima and pole bean district, at Carpin- 

 teria and Ventura. Farthest south, near 

 Los Angeles, are other large flower seed 

 growing districts and tomato seed 

 farms. 



"Up River." 



An entirely different district, both in 

 climate and soil, is what we call the 

 river district, locally referred to as "up 

 river." This is a territory near Sacra- 

 mento, a city of about ;)0,000 people, the 

 capital of the state, and Stockton, a 

 city of about 40,000 inhabitants. Flow- 

 ing up to Stockton from the south is the 

 great San Joaquin river and flowing 

 down from the north to Sacramento is 

 the great Sacramento river. These two 

 rivers turn west to a pass through the 

 coast range to San Francisco bay and 

 thence to the ocean. Where the rivers 

 meet are large tracts of tule islands, 

 which ,have practically all been re- 

 claimed with high levees and fine drain- 

 age systems. While the soil varies from 

 almost pure muck or peat to heavier 

 loam or silt, it is all rich, moist soil 

 and is nearly all under a high state of 

 cultivation. The moisture is easilv con- 



trolled by huge drainage systems, which 

 pump out the water when tliere is too 

 much and pump it in from the rivers and 

 their tributaries (called slouglis) when 

 the soil is too dry. 



East of the Mountains. 



Lying east of the mountains, the delta 

 section, as it is coming to be called by 

 the newer river settlers, does not get 

 the cool summer winds that blow from 

 the ocean along the coast country and 

 is much hotter and drier in the summer, 

 and crops ripen earlier. 



Occasionally there is an unusually hot, 

 dry wind in June, when seed croj)S are 

 in bloom, and we experience a bad burn 

 on the seed head, whether carrot, leek 

 or onion, and sometimes the crop is 

 seriously damaged. In the delta there 

 is practically no fog in summer and the 

 morning dews are usually evaporated 

 before 8 o'clock, so that when crops 

 are ripe they are best harvested early, 

 and cure or dry on the sheets within a 

 few days and can then be threshed by 

 being rolled with a roller drawn by 

 horses. Practically all the seed crops 

 are threshed in this simple manner, and 

 the method is preferable to threshing 

 with a macliine, since there is no clean- 

 ing of a machine necessary when it is 

 moved from one variety to another, and 

 in the case of carrot, the beards or 

 spines are nicely rubbed off by the 

 roller. Such seeds as carrot, celery, 

 beet, parsnip, etc., are run through a 

 fanning mill and given a rough clean- 

 ing, and then shipped to the seed 

 grower, who cleans the seed to a mer- 

 chantable sample. Onion and leek are 



Vinter-Flowering Sweet Peas Grown for Seed at the Floradale Farms of W. Atlee Burpee Co., in California. 



