SEED FARMS IN CALIFORNIA 
By A. J. Wells 
IN 1820 a seed merchant of Phila- 
delphia announced that he had "an 
abundant supply of seeds," having 
received from England "300 bushels of 
garden peas and 400 pounds of onion 
seed !" Today a single seed farm in 
California will grow enough onion seed 
in one field to supply 600 such stores, 
and one seed merchant will take it all. 
A single seed-house in Philadelphia now 
provides floor space equivalent to the 
area of 16 acres, and such a house will 
contract with growers in California to 
furnish seed by the ton and by carload 
lots of from one to six cars. 
Seed-growing has become an estab- 
lished branch of California horticulture, 
and from these farms the principal seed- 
houses of the United States and of many 
parts of Europe draw their supplies. 
Seedsmen from half the world visit 
California yearly to inspect the fields and 
to arrange contracts, and seeds now go in 
car lots even to France and to Holland. 
Flower and ■^ :getable seeds are gen- 
erally small, delicate, thinly cased, easily 
afifected by changing weather, injured by 
dampness, and hard to cure where cli- 
matic conditions are unfavorable. Cloudy 
weather, showers, a driving rain, or heavy 
wind may, as Shakespeare says, "destroy 
six months' good hope." But here seeds 
are grown in a maximum of sunshine 
and matured without storms or rain or 
artificial irrigation, faring much as a wild 
plant fares, save for the constant stirring 
of the soil. They are cured in the open 
air, free from all dampness. Harvesting 
comes on before the rain sets in. and 
there is no difficulty in drying the seed 
crops in the field, without the expense of 
providing barns or miles of sheds for 
shelter. 
The crop is grown only for the seed, 
and cultivation is directed to the conser- 
vation of moisture at the root to main- 
tain a steady but not "woody" or luxu- 
riant growth. The climate of the coast 
region southward from San Francisco 
for 500 miles is wonderfully equable and 
full of comfort for the human plant. It 
is more radiant, genial, equable and re- 
juvenating than the famous Riviera, with 
less atmospheric disturbance and varia- 
tions of temperature, and is ideal for 
garden and field plants. 
There are seed farms in eight counties 
of the State, but for the most part the 
business centers in certain coast valleys 
between San Francisco and Santa Bar- 
bara. Of these, the chief and oldest 
section is the Santa Clara Valley, about 
San Jose, and reaching down into the 
extensions of this valley, locally known 
as the Hollister and San Juan valleys. 
The whole valley is shut away from the 
sea by the Coast Range, but its climate 
at the same time is modified by the prox- 
imity of the sea, and is a blend of the 
coast air and the warmer and drier air 
of the interior. 
A more marked coast climate is found 
in the little valley of Arroyo Grande, 200 
miles south of San Jose. This opens di- 
rectly upon the ocean, but has the tem- 
perature of Santa Barbara rather than 
that of San Francisco. Still further 
south is the Lompoc Valley, nearly due 
east from Point Conception, where the 
coast line turns sharply eastward, expos- 
ing the whole frontage of the land to the 
southern sun, and taking the west winds 
at an angle. 
The soil of the Santa Clara Valley and 
its extensions is sedimentary, very deep, 
black or chocolate brown, and rich and 
moist. Vancouver described it in 1792 
as "a rich, productive mold, superior to 
any I have seen in America." 
The soil of Arroyo Grande and of 
Lompoc is of a lighter color and finer 
texture, approaching the loess type in 
appearance, and is enormously fertile. 
Locally the latter region has been known 
for its large production of mustard seed 
and the former for its great vegetable 
products. A large seed farm is located 
in the Arroyo Grande, which has this 
year, on a single contract, 300 acres of 
sweet peas. 
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