166 
T H E (; A R D E X :\r A G A Z I N E 
December, 191C 
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The work of improvement by selection is arduous. Each 
tent here encloses an individual sugar beet and protects 
the flowers from foreign influence 
devoted to peas alone, and 50,000 to beans, 
by which time the seed growing regions had 
stretched clean across the continent to the 
Pacific. 
1 he path of progress was not without stumb- 
ling blocks, for rich soil fosters disease and 
generous climates nurse bugs as well as plants. 
But when blight struck the bean fields of New 
York, .America had a Michigan to fall back on. 
When the weevil attacked the pea fields of 
New A’ork, enterprising Americans discovered 
that Idaho and Montana offered a soil and 
climate that was even better for the purpose 
at hand. And so these industries have pros- 
pered largely. 
TWENTIETH CENTURY 
METHODS 
As the business of seed 
growing, as a whole, spread 
over larger territory', so did 
it become more specialized 
locally into well defined 
zones, according as the crop 
found congenial conditions. 
Thus New Jersey produced 
choicer strains of eggplants, 
peppers and tomatoes than 
any procurable elsewhere; 
Georgia and Florida became 
famous for melons; Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut 
for squash and onions. New 
York State, until a few 
years ago, led in seed 
beans; in the eastern end 
of Long Island a limited 
production of cabbage 
and cauliflower; Michi- 
gan leads in peas. Ohio 
claimed the leadership in tomatoes and onions. 
THE world’s seed GARDEN 
Great is the treasure that has been dug from 
California soils, but of greater value to the 
world are the seed crops which these same 
soils yield to-day. As far back as 1851, at- 
tempts were made to grow seeds in California; 
but the real beginning of the present industry 
was not made until 
1875, when we find 
one grower devoting 
about twenty - five 
acres to beets, onions, 
lettuce and carrotsfor 
seed purposes. 
A quarter of a cen- 
tury later, the busi- 
ness had assumed 
such proportions that 
modern machinery 
was called into use in 
the production of 
crops raised for seed 
— giant tractors pull- 
ing gang plows, turn- 
ing ten furrows at 
once; clod crushers 
and harrows^ seeders 
and land rollers. Ten, 
fifty, a hundred acres 
are now planted to 
individual varieties oi 
onions, radishes, let- 
tuce, etc. A single 
firm devotes nearly 
3,000 acres to seed 
crops, the product of 
which goes to Europe, 
Australia and Africa, 
for America is com- 
Sweet Alyssum by the acre! Illustrative of how the American trade is raising popular favorites for the million 
ing into her own as the seed garden of the 
world. 
The rise of the seed-growing industry' in 
California is one of the fairy tales of modern 
America. The United States Census of 1909 
placed the value of all garden seeds grown 
in California at ^600,000. To-day, more 
than 10,000 acres of California’s finest garden 
lands are devoted to the raising of small 
Sweet I’ea seed growing is now one of California’s staple industries. The “roguers” constantly work over the fields and 
destroy vines that are not true to tyix>. Pure seed is therefore expensive 
garden seeds, the annual value of which is 
estimated at $2,000,000. The coast coun- 
have proved a paradise for growing 
lettuce, endive, salsify, parsnip, parsley, and 
Sweet Peas. In the peat soils of the river 
islands, in the central part of the State, carrot, 
celery, onion and leek revel and thrive to 
perfection. A conservative estimate of the 
most important California vegetable seed 
crops produced during the past season in- 
cluded lettuce seeds, 500 tons; radish seed, 
400 to 500 tons; onion seed, 600 tons; carrot 
seed, 600 tons. 
The seed farms are planted like checker- 
boards, one block of a var- 
iety alternating with a block 
of a different kind and 
species, since to insure pur- 
ity of the desired strain, no 
admixture of allied pollen 
can be permitted. Progres- 
sive growers now use maps 
or charts for locating the 
different crops, the old-fash- 
ioned method of stake mark- 
ing having outgrown its 
usefulness. 
Where fifteen years ago 
but spasmodic attempts 
were made at growing 
flower seeds other than 
Sweet Peas, there are now a 
half dozen firms concentrat- 
ing their efforts over a wide 
variety of such favorites as 
Alyssum, Balsam, Candy- 
tuft, Celosia, etc., etc. More 
than twenty -five distinct 
kinds, in all their varieties, 
occupy about 800 acres 
every year. Immense quantities of the more 
common sorts are produced, a typical item 
being more than 100 tons of Nasturtium ( fro- 
paeolum) seed (or just about as much as is 
produced by the entire country of Holland). 
Sweet Peas offer the most spectacular illus- 
tration of the flow'er seed industry. In 1885, 
not more than a dozen varieties (with, perhaps, 
a quarter of an acre devoted to each) were 
cultivated; fifteen 
years later, more than 
125 varieties are in 
cultivation, one 
grower alone devot- 
ing nearly 200 acres 
to this crop. At the 
present time, the 
growing of high-class 
Sweet Pea seeds in 
California eclipses 
anything the world 
has ever witnessed in 
seed production. 
Two thousand acres 
combine to yield 
about I ,500,000 
pounds of seed, 
enough to give every 
man, w o m a n and 
child in this country 
a 15-foot row in the 
garden and still leave 
a handsome margin 
of several hundred 
tons for export pur- 
poses. And as yet the 
industry is still in its 
infancy. 
The growers fully 
realize their responsi- 
bilities to us, the con- 
