3*4 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1906 



The Santa Clara 

 valley, south of San 

 Francisco, on ac- 

 count of the high 

 fertility of its soil 

 and the regularity 

 of its seasons is es- 

 pecially well adapt- 

 ed to the production 

 of flower and vege- 

 table seeds, and it is 

 from this district 

 alone that over a 

 million pounds of 

 seeds are annually 

 produced. About 

 half of this number 

 of pounds of seeds 

 is onion seed which 

 is shipped in bulk, to 

 wholesale dealers 

 throughout the 

 country and is ex- 

 ported as well to 

 foreign merchants. 

 All the seeds grown 

 in other places 



in California are dried entirely in the open air, and there can 

 be little doubt that through this agency of pure air and warm 

 sunshine the resulting product is far more vigorous and 

 germinates more readily than that produced with the assist- 

 ance of artificial drying. In the Santa Clara valley there are 

 no scorching heats and no biting frosts and while rain usually 

 falls in ample quantity to mature the plants during their 

 growth, the farmer is practically certain of dry weather ac- 



Curing Onion Seed 



companied by gentle 

 breezes during the 

 harvest season. 



One of the larger 

 of the Santa Clara 

 valley seed farms is 

 devoted exclusively 

 to the production ot 

 onion seed. The ac- 

 companying i 1 1 u s- 

 strations are from 

 photographs taken 

 on this great farm, 

 and they illustrate 

 the magnitude of the 

 industry. On this 

 farm the visitor can 

 find a single field 

 having an acreage 

 of 640, covered en- 

 tirely with onions. 

 It is almost a strain 

 to the imagination 

 to conceive of one 

 entire square mile 

 covered with a 

 thick, rippling 

 growth of onions — nothing but onions. These include over 

 twenty-five regularly cultivated varieties. Among the most 

 popular of these are the White Portugal, a mild, high- 

 priced plant which is expensive because it yields fewer 

 pounds of seeds to the acre than most other varieties; the 

 Australian Brown, a delicate, reddish-yellow in color, which 

 was introduced from the country whose name it bears; the 

 Yellow Globe Danver, of a bright yellow color and a fav- 



Red Wethersfield 



