December, 1916 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
167 
suming public, the garden makers of America, 
and to the world at large, and are strenuously 
striving to produce seeds and strains of the 
highest type. 
SEEDS WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD AND MORE 
Quite in contrast to the loO-ton lots of the 
more popular vegetable seeds, stands the re- 
stricted yield of pedigreed strains of high- 
class specialties in flower seeds. This pro- 
duction is measured by the 
lo-foot row rather than 
by the acre. The quanti- 
ties produced are depend- 
ing on available human 
skill, not on a combination 
of land, labor and climate. 
As an instance, consider 
the Double Petunia. Be- 
cause, in the evolution of 
the flower through selec- 
tion, the corolla has be- 
come greatly enlarged, in- 
sects now find it difficult 
to attend to the task of 
fertilizing the pistil, which 
has to be done artificially 
by hand. Skilled men go 
over the patches, picking 
up stem after stem, dis- 
tributing the pollen by 
means of a camel’s hair 
brush. As a result, seeds 
of this type are expensive 
and rare. They are sold 
at so many dollars per 
thousand seeds. One- 
thirty-second of one ounce 
constitutes a “trade 
packet,” which is the term used by the trade 
to designate a standard quantity. A 
conservative estimate puts the value per acre 
of these rare seeds at -more than $ 10 , 000 — 
but the whole country does not produce that 
much! Fortunately, it is not needed — yet; 
for few are the people who’ are willing to pay 
what really high-grade strains are worth. 
MELONS ON MOUNTAINS 
Ten thousand feet above the sea level the 
youngest seed industry of the continent is 
nursing a modest little patch of about 10,000 
acres, mostly devoted to beans, cucumbers 
and melons. The discovery of Colorado as a 
seed-growing section dates back to 1881, when 
an eastern seedsman “discovered” that the 
muskmelons around Rocky F ord were of dis- 
tinctly superior quality. Netted Gem, or 
Rocky Ford muskmelon, under which name 
this specific variety subsequently became 
known to every one, soon made Rocky Ford 
famous. 
About twenty years ago, some of the enter- 
prising Colorado truckers and shippers began 
experimenting with growing seeds for com- 
mercial purposes. Ten years later, a full- 
fledged seed garden surrounded Rocky Ford. 
To melons were added cucumbers and other 
vegetables of a “vining” character. This 
past season saw 4,000 acres devoted to the 
growing of cucumber seed alone, which area 
yielded approximately 1,000,000 pounds. 
Since one ounce of cucumber seeds will sow 
ten hills in the home garden, Colorado’s crop 
alone will sow 640 mdlion hills of pickles! 
And Nebraska, Kansas, and Jersey seed grow- 
ers provide seeds for that many more! A 
really inconceivable amount! 
The successful growing of flower seeds has 
also been established around Rocky Ford. 
While less than .100 acres were thus devoted 
last year, the next few years will see this area 
grow by leaps and bounds. 
And there are yet other sections in the 
embryo stage. Throughout the central West, 
from Nebraska to Texas, come contributions to 
the seed supply in general. 1 he New Eng- 
land States still lead in the production of cer- 
tain specialties, such as squash, sweet corn, 
carrot and onions among vegetables, and 
.Asters, Salvia, and Phlox among flowers, 
although the general trend of the trade is 
westward — toward fertile virgin soil. 
THE MODERN SEED HOUSE 
The business of selling 
seeds is entirely distinct 
from thatof growingseeds. 
The two go hand in hand, 
but each has a different 
mission. 
The seedsman tells to 
the public at large, by 
means of his catalogue, 
what it may raise advant- 
ageously in vegetables and 
flowers in home and truck 
gardens. He also keeps 
the seed-growers posted as 
to the trend of popular 
demand; if Americans 
want a tall pea instead of 
a dwarf one, and a Crested 
Zinnia instead of one with 
straight petals, they will 
get them if they make 
their wants known to the 
seed trade. The seedsman 
also “flirts with fortune” 
in launching before his 
customers from time to 
time new variations of 
old favorites or even entirely new plants. 
The investment is frequently heavy and the 
reward not always immediate, or even re- 
alized at all. Novelties sometimes fail to 
satisfy the public — but be it remembered 
in this connection that every individual 
standard kind to-day was once some pioneer’s 
“novelty” and was launched on the world to 
meet its fate just like the novelties of this year. 
The modern American seed firm is the 
world’s clearing house for all that is w-orth 
while, for American garden, field and farm. 
And in interpreting the spirit, extent and 
usefulness of the world’s seed business, it is 
rendering a real service to every garden 
maker, and to each individual reader of this 
Alagazine. 
Growing for seed is the highest type of intensive cultivation. A Pansy seed farm in Germany. Observe the 
piles of fertilizer in the background. The sticks mark selected, individual plants of special merit whose seed is 
to be saved as a specialty strain 
An English seed garden. In order to secure purity, totally unrelated plants are grown in 
proximity, and no similar form anywhere near by 
Holland utilizes its limited land area to raise specially selected strains of quality flowers, 
for which the demand is limited. Stock shown here 
