June 23, 191C. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



39 



Growth of the Seed Bean Industry 



in Southern California 



A Story of Forty Years 



From a contract calling for the de- 

 livery of 100 bushels, the seed bean 

 business on the Pacific coast has grown 

 io orders aggregating several millions 

 of pounds of choice hand-picked seed 

 beans. To Henry Fish belongs the 

 credit of inaugurating the great indus- 

 try of growing seed beans in southern 

 California. Starting away back in the 

 70 's, Henry Fish, senior member of the 

 Henry Fish Seed Co., recently incorpo- 

 rated, planted the first crop of Lima 

 Beans to be sold for seed purposes, and 

 he has been in the business continu- 

 ously ever since, witnessing an infant 

 industry develop into a great business. 



The beginnings of the industry are 

 interesting; doubly so because they go 

 back to the days when the agricultural 

 possibilities of California were in the 

 experimental stage. Gold had been dis- 

 covered some twenty years or more be- 

 fore, but the dream of the golden har- 

 vests that were likewise to attract 

 worldwide interest in California was 

 only just beginning to take definite 

 form in the minds of a few earnest work- 

 ers. In the agricultural and horticul- 

 tural world of California it was a period 

 of discovery and adaptation. New fields 

 of soil endeavor were opened up, and to 

 the faith and works of the pioneers we 

 owe much of our present-day develop- 

 ment. 



The Beginning 



The growing of the Lima Bean as a 

 field crop had its humble beginning in 

 the year 1872. In the fertile Carpin- 

 teria Valley one Robert McAllister 

 tried it as an experiment. It worked. 

 The soil was of virgin richness, the 

 months between seed time and harvest 

 were without rain, so no "poling" was 

 necessary and all danger of rotting done 

 away with. Coming to Carpinteria about 

 that time, Henry Fish became at once 

 interested in the new crop. In an east- 

 ern state he had tasted the succulent 

 legume and as a storekeeper . had sold 

 packages of Lima Bean seed to his cus- 

 tomers, and his mind was quick to grasp 

 the possibilities of bean growing under 

 the seemingly perfect conditions met 

 ^"ith in this new country. 



D. M. Ferry is Interested 



Writing to D. M. Ferry & Co., the 

 great seed house of Detroit, whose seeds 

 he had handled in the East, he secured 

 a contract to furnish them in the fall 

 with 100 bushels of seed beans. So 

 interested was the firm in the opening up 

 of the new venture that D. M. Ferry vis- 

 ited in person the new field of operations, 

 *nd the totally different conditions 

 under which the new crop was to be 

 raised aroused the keenest interest and 

 curiosity of the seedsman. The faith 

 ?f Mr. Fish in the future of the Lima 

 Bean never wavered, and his early 

 .ludgment has been more than vindi- 

 cated by the test of years of growing 

 the Lima Bean. In no other spot do 

 tney grow under such ideal conditions. 



The result of the first year's venture 



was so satisfactory to both grower and 

 buyer that a second contract followed, 

 and since then, for thirty-five years, 

 Henry Fish has had among his contracts 

 a yearly one from D. M. Ferry & Co. 

 for seed beans. This is a high tribute 

 to the integrity of the seeds sent out 

 by Mr. Fish from year to year. 



The Day's of Hard Labor 



The days of the first crops were in 

 the time when machines and labor-sav- 

 ing devices for the ranch and ranch 

 work were but little known. When dry, 

 the beans were placed in an enclosed 

 corral. A vaquero drove a bunch of 

 wild ponies around on them to tramp 

 them out, doing the work of the mod- 

 ern threshing machine, and a hand fan- 

 ning machine was used for cleaning the 

 beans. Methods of handling the beans 

 changed, but the same painstaking care 

 to produce dependable seeds that char- 

 acterized the first crops raised by Henry 

 Fish was exercised year after year and 

 has become one of the cardinal prin- 

 ciples of the Henry Fish Seed Co. Per- 

 haps in no other business does the re- 

 liability or dependability play so im- 

 portant a part as it does in the seed 

 business. Good and poor seeds may not 

 look so dissimilar, and that is why the 

 integrity of the man behind the seeds 

 counts for so much. The natural ex- 

 planation of the growth of the seed 

 bean business of Henry Fish is found 

 here. 



A look at the different varieties of 

 beans is interesting. Of Lima Beans 

 alone the Henry Fish Seed Co. handles 

 some twenty or more varieties, and they 

 handle a larger number of varieties of 

 Kidney Beans. Each variety has its 

 special points which differentiate it 

 from all others. A number of new va- 

 rieties are of recent introduction, and 

 mark an epoch-making advance in bean 

 values. The Henry Fish Seed Co. has 

 been foremost in originating and intro- 

 ducing new and superior varieties. Now 

 the mere fact of introducing a new va- 

 riety is not in itself a great achieve- 

 ment. The new candidate, to win rec- 

 ognition and favor and enjoy wide- 

 spread popularity and sale, must be an 

 improvement over all others in its class 

 or type. 



Valuable New Sorts 



Nor does the originating of a new 

 variety come through luck or accident. 

 Few people realize that it often takes 

 years of patient and intelligent work to 

 produce a new variety of value. A 

 number of years ago Henry B. Fish, 

 general manager of the new firm, while 

 removing strays and sports from the 

 growing crop, round several plants that, 

 from his expert knowledge of beans, 

 seemed to embody latent possibilities. 

 Experiments were made. A process 

 of rigid rejection and selection took 

 place, and as a monument to his genius, 

 which is " capacity for taking pains," 

 three new and splendid types of Lima 

 Beans have been given to the world. 

 Burpee's Improved and Ford hook Bush 



Limas and the Carpinteria Pole Lima 

 all originated on the trial grounds of the 

 Henry Fish Seed Co. A hint of the 

 value of these new varieties is given 

 when it is said that the first carload of 

 Burpee's Improved and Fordhook Bush 

 Limas sent to the eastern seed house 

 that bought them constituted the most 

 valuable carload of seed beans ever 

 shipped from California — that is to say, 

 they were the highest priced beans ever 

 sent east from this coast. 



More Good Things in Prospect 



Some promisiijg varieties are now in 

 the development stage and will be heard 

 from later, if past achievements of the 

 Henry Fish Seed Co. are any criterion. 

 On account of their success in produc- 

 ing valuable new varieties, eastern 

 seedsmen, when they find what they 

 think will be the start of an improved 

 variety, frequently send it to the Henry 

 Fish Seed Co. to be developed. 



Every precaution is taken to preserve 

 types, even after they are established, 

 and even in fields of old and established 

 varieties grown on contract for the 

 Henry Fish Seed Co., the fields are gone 

 over during the growing season and in- 

 ferior plants, sports, and beans of other 

 varieties weeded out. 



A Model Warehouse 



Last year this firm found their busi- 

 ness to be so much greater than their 

 facilities for handling it that a new 

 warehouse was imperative. Their years 

 of familiarity with the needs and re- 

 quirements of the seed business have 

 enabled the firm to bring to bear in the 

 new building a knowledge of warehouse 

 construction that has resulted in a seed 

 house that is a model of convenience 

 and which admits of the quickest dis- 

 patch in handling the seed beans. In- 

 deed, there is not on the coast another 

 seed bean warehouse that embodies so 

 many features of merit. 



Personnel of the FishXirm 



An interesting feature of the new 

 firm just incorporated lies in the fact 

 that it is strictly a family firm. Henry 

 Fish is founder and president of the 

 new company. Two sons, Henry B. 

 Fish, who is treasurer and general man- 

 ager, and Thomas N. Fish, who is vice- 

 president, have been brought up in the 

 business and by heredity and environ- 

 ment may be said to know beans. Henry 

 B. Fish has charge of the warehouse 

 business, and Thomas N. Fish manages 

 the seed farm. Hester S. Fish, who is 

 secretary, and Julia Fish, the assistant 

 secretary, are members of the new firm 

 and daughters of the founder. Juliette 

 G. Fish, the wife of the veteran seeds- 

 man, completes the list of stockholders. 

 It has always been the habit of these 

 seedsmen to welcome visitors, and east- 

 em seedsmen on their rounds of crop 

 inspection often stop off at Carpinteria 

 and are hospitably received. A visit to 

 the warehouse in the fall and winter, 

 when the busy season is on, is an edtl- 

 cating experience quite worth while. 



