18 



The Florists^ Review 



Jir.NK •2iK llf_'_* 



idili'.l iiihl r'.'iiiiiiil. Ilini \v;islifil iir sunk 

 ill wiitcr, lluii dill', I hikI iiiillcd diici', 

 .-it'tiT wliicli I hey an -nit tn flii' ijfnwor. 

 wlici linislics tlic wink nl clcaiiinj;-. 



'I'lirsc river crops aic iisuall\- L;r(i\\ ii 

 (111 small arras liy j;aril('liris di' farmers 

 who work at fixed price- for certain 

 work. I'"iir instance, in tlie case of 

 ;,n'owiny: oniim see<l, tlie erewfr suiijilies 

 the onion Idillis. and in tile case of 

 roots, the fanners may or may not yrow 

 ttiese for tlie <;ro\ver. luit the price is 

 determined tiy tlie work lie performs. 

 .Ml sheets, sacks, etc.. are siipplieil or 

 loaned l>\' the •grower, and he is usuall.x' 

 called iiiioii to siii)i)ly moi"ie.\- for crop 

 :id\aiic<'s. The <rrowers must do all the 

 superiiitendiiifj of the work and must 

 have tlii'ir representatives mi the jcd. 

 the year around. 



Seed Grower's Place. 



The California seed fjrower used to \«- 

 one who either owned or leased his own 

 farm. own(>d all his stock and equip 

 ment, and ojieraled his farm with day 

 l.alior. Much of this has now been 

 idiani;ed, and while he still owns or 

 leases a lar«;e jiart of his land aiid work- 

 it liims(df. he jdaees more or le^s of In- 

 ,-u're;ij;(' with \arious farmers who j^row 

 for him. This is now done liotli alon;; 

 the coast and in the delta district. 

 Manv acre- of pe.'i--. lieaii^ and \ ine 

 seeds are now jirpwn. hnt none of the<e 

 crops, so far as T know, is ^rown by 

 the grower himself. There is .a clemand 

 now for two distinctive titles, one tin 



seed o;rower. who <iets the s 1 for the 



seiMlsman or dealer, and the other the 

 farmer, <rrower or producer, who pl;iiit- 

 a small acreage for the seed grower. 

 To my mind, we should designate^ them 

 here.after as seed growi-r .-iiid fariiici 

 grower. 



One unf.'imili.'ir with the wi'i'k of |iro 

 ducing seed cro]'s might think it an 

 e.asy matter to get din-ct ti. the farniei 

 grower and eliminate 1h(> margin tli.-it 

 seems to exist between him and tie 

 seed growi-r. It woiiM only be be, -an-. 

 Ii,. w;is unfamiliar, however, with the 

 oruani/atioii and -y-lem reipiired to 



1,,- 1 stock seed-, to secure intelligent 



l':irmer grower-, to aii.anue bienni:il 

 ,.,,,|,< :,iid to -rt tin i-vop- )iro|perl\ 

 ,, hinted, and lie would doubtless under 

 ,. climate the i-o-t oi' e.piipnieiit tli.at 

 must be lo.aiie.l tiio farmer and tin- cash 

 advances th.-it •^o f rnpieiit Iv niu-t be 

 iiiadi'. 



Crops of Small Seeds. 



Siiidi crop- a- letliirr. rudi-li. parsley, 

 oiiioii. sweet pe;i-. luliuaiv pea- and 

 -eeil beans an gro\vii in the coast \-al- 

 leys. The fir-t-nieiitioiied -iii.all seeds 

 .-ii'e produced b\- the scimI -rowers, who 

 to :i laii:i' extent .are fanner- themselves 

 :iiid operate their own <^f<\ f.ainis and 

 on rattier a l:irL'<' scale. 



As the weather i'- cooler and fogs and 

 hea\v dew- are freipieiil. h;ir\esting is 

 coiiducteil on a somewhat clifferent pliin 

 than in the river or d(dta district. Such 

 i-rops as lettuce, onion and sweet ])eas 

 are dried on sheets on account of their 

 shelling so easilv, but radish, i^arslev 

 and other crops are lai<l in windrows in 

 the fndd and hauled to the threshing 

 machines in (loth-lined wagons. Onion, 

 radisli and sweet peas require speciallv 

 constructed threshers. Vmt lettuce is best 

 threshed by simply rolling with a big 

 roller drawn by horses. River crops, 

 wlii(di iiolude carrot, eolery. ]iarsnip. 

 beet, sjiinaeh an<l onion, are all rolled 

 out: it does not pay to thresh tlii'se 



crops in tli.at section with machines, 

 since the I'.anner growers usually jdant 

 only small acreages for the seed grow 

 I'ls and to iiioNc machines from one 

 isl.and to .another on steamers or barges 

 reipiires much time, trouble and ex- 

 pense. 



Retaining Strains. 



It is hardly lUM'essary to e.\]ilain to an 

 .issembly of seetlsmen that seeil growing 

 is ,a highly intensixc form of horticul- 

 ture. 



The s(dectioii of stock seeds and the 

 development of fine strains is carried 

 on to ;i great degree in California. This 

 ile\'eloiiment work is a great study and 

 many things have been learn(>d by long 

 and iiatient e.\])erience. 



The ('alifornia clim.ate, wliethcr 

 coastal or \ alley, has a tendency to 

 change the character of some jilants. 

 esjiecially biennials, and it is necessary 

 • or the seei] e-rower to renew his stocks 



Lester L. Morse. 



by gelting -lock seed- I'noii crop- grow n 

 ill the e;i-t or noifliern I'iuidpe. wheic 

 there are clilinite sea-oii-. Such item- 

 as carrot, beet, onion and radish change 

 fast, and it i- one ol' tin' -eed grower's 

 problems and also hi- secii't as to how- 

 he can m.aint.'iiii In- quality with these 

 crii](s. .Sini|ily oidi ring a few ]ioiiiid- 

 from an eastern or l-Jii (qM.a n grower is 

 no security, since e\i'ii a grower of the 

 highest reputation may have strains 

 that "break'' or ha\t' often crcissed in 

 his fields. The best method is to have 

 several sources and try out stocks in liis 

 tri.'il grounds before using them. 



The tenilency of onion grown too long 

 in < alifornia is to lose its keeping qual- 

 ity, ;iiid the tendency of carrots and 

 radishes is to run too large and coarse, 

 with long leaves, while beet not only 

 wants to run awjiy with si/e and le.af, 

 but becomes light-colored and light- 

 zoned. All these teiolencies or ilefects 



c;in be controlled, liowever, by the in 

 telligent seed grower. 



On the other hand, California is the 

 home of lettuce, and we all jirefer to 

 hiindle our own str.ains and carry on our 

 own de\elopment work witli it. 



California Specialties. 



The list of items named are what we 

 call California specialties, including 

 carrot, celery, endive, leek, lettuce, gar 

 den mustard, onion, parsniji, jiarsley, 

 radish and salsify. Such crops as beets 

 and spinach are usually grown in more 

 moderate quantities. All of tliese, you 

 will observe, are what some call small 

 seeds. 



Flower seed growing is quite another 

 industry, except that most of the vege- 

 table seed growers grow sweet peas. 



Culinary, or garden peas are grown 

 successfully in California, and in 1920 

 there was alxiut 30,000 acres put in. 

 The quality of these varies considerably 

 with the location. 



California has ])retty much a mono])- 

 oly of the seed production of pole beans 

 and lima beans. The former can spread 

 naturally on the ground and our dr\- 

 summers give the jiods a fine chance to 

 ripen without disc(doration. 



Many other kinds of seeds can be 

 grown successfully, and my own linn 

 grows more or less of its own sweet corn, 

 melon, scpiash and cucumber, but 

 these usually for our own coast markets. 



The cost of these crops is usually con- 

 sideraldy more than the jirices charged 

 by the regular middle west growers, and 

 this branch of seed growing is not likelv 

 to de\-(dop to any great ]iroporf ions, al- 

 tliongh one middle west grower is re 

 porteij to ha\(^ "lOO or (iOO acres of water- 

 iindon out this vear in the San .Toa<|uiii 

 \;illey. 



There is jiractically no cabbage, broc- 

 coli or cauliflower seed grown in Califor- 

 nia ;ind little niang(>l or sugar be(>t. 



Estimate of Acreage. 



On .account of the unusual conditions 

 de\elo|ied by the war and the gre.at 

 -urpliis produced 1)y unusually heavy 

 crops and unwarranted acreage, it is 

 'lilliciilf to estimate the extent of Cali- 

 fornia seeil growing. My own estimate, 

 liowcNcr, whicli is little better than a 

 uuess, is that 10,000 acres cover all the 

 -mall seeds in a normal year, but, of 

 course, the last thr(>e years it has been 

 mindi under this figure. A normal vear 

 for ganlen, or culinary peas is ai>out 

 ti.iiOO acres, and for pole, dwarf and 

 lima beans about 10,000 acres; for toma- 

 toes for seed, about fiOO to 700 acres, 

 and for other miscellaneous vegetable 

 si'cd crops, ab(uit l,r)00 to L',000 acres. 

 I'lower seeds, without sweet peas, jirob- 

 ;ibly total 1,000 acres, and sweet peas 

 alone, aliout 1,200 acres. 



Of the small garden seeds 1 would 

 estimate as norm.al about ^{,000 acres in 

 onion, about 2,000 in lettuce, .about 2,000 

 in railish, about 2,000 in carrot, and 

 l.iMMi for ])a)sniji, jiarsley. salsify, beet 

 and inisi-i llaneous veget.ablc seed crops. 



Tli(< total acreage is not large when 

 comi>iired with other crops, and when I 

 sjioke i\\' the see(l imlustry as suffering 

 :i little in com[iarison with other indus 

 tries I had in mind just such illustra- 

 tions as apjioar from two statements 

 whiidi ajqieared in The Review recently. 

 In the Seed Trade Department of this 

 paper for May IS it w;is stated that 

 Last year's crop of cantaloupes grown 

 coinniercially was about .To, 800 carloads, 

 with a value of $17,000,(100, am] that 



