HERB AND FLOWER SEEDS. 95 
European success in the production of high-grade flower 
and other seeds. It is not owing to superiority in cli- 
mate or soil, inasmuch as we have as good, if not better, 
in our own country; but it is due rather to careful 
methods in growing, 7. ¢., the most particular attention 
that is given in Europe to cultivation, to keeping varie- 
ties pure by selection and separation, and to an unceas- 
ing endeavor to improve varieties. In other words, 
these European growers, besides being trained special- 
ists in their respective lines, are methodical and de- 
liberate in performance, conscientious and careful to 
the superlative degree; points which will always place 
seed growers of any country in the front rank. And if 
these same careful practices of the Europeans were gen- 
erally adopted in the United States, it should be only a 
question of time when importations here would cease 
entirely. 
Production in the United States.—Seeds of cer- 
tain special varieties of flowers are grown commercially, 
on a small scale, in some of the Eastern States, but 
California produces about all the flower seeds grown in 
the United States. While in a certain sense this latter 
production is quite large, it is confined mostly to coarser 
strains of popular varieties which, however, are the 
equal of European seeds of the same class. 
In California, about five hundred acres are devoted 
to flowering sweet peas alone, the total annual produc- 
tion of same approximating 350,000 pounds or about 
seven hundred pounds per acre, at prices to the grower 
of eight to ten cents per pound. In the same State, 
flowering nasturtiums yield about 300 pounds per acre, 
at prices which rule from 25 to 80 cents per pound to 
the grower; asters about 40 pounds per acre, at $2.50 
to $5.00 per pound to the grower. 
