The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-07
GREAT GROWTH OF
 THE SEED INDUSTRY Millions of Packets Now Sold Annually All
 Over Country. VALUABLE CORN EAR Seeds of Double Petunia Now Bringing $O
 an Ounce.
VALUABLE CORN EAR

done more for the seed industry in America than all the previous years of its existence. In that time seed grow CTS have not only produced more than half the seed used in this country, as compared with much smaller per centage in former years, but they have sufficient diversity of climate and soil to grow in profusion any seed which is now imported. Most of the seeds in the United States are produced in Cali fornia, where, in the Santa Clara val ley, there is one farm alone containing 10000 acres.
 The variance in the amount of seeds produced to the acre by different plants is very great, as some vegeta- bles will give 200 pounds to the acre and others 2,ooo or 5000 pounds A conservative average is 800 pounds to the acre. Flowers run to the most re- markable extremes in this yield Sweet peas, which seed more freely than any flower, sometimes produce 5000 pounds to the acre-a ton and a half of seed. The double petunia, which Is known to seed growers as the "shyest seeder," will sometimes fail to yield a pound to the acre.
 This inability of the double petuhfa to hold it's seed makes it very valuable. It's retail price is $7O an ounce, or $1,120 pound. It is worth more than ten times its weight in gold. This seed is much finer than gunpowder and al- most as fine as cooking flour. It is al- most impossible to distinguish the sep arate seeds, and is the most expensive kind handled by any dealer. The cheapest seeds sold by the pound are | those of the beet and mustard, which cost only five cents a pound. In plen- tiful seasons sweetpeas sell for seven cents pound.
 There is a great differ ence in price between the seeds of an unnamed variety of flower, or vegetable, and some so-called novelty" which grow CTS have produced from the generic plant. These novelties are produced in various ways, by selection, by cross ing the seeds, and they are sometimes developed into distinct varieties. There are only forty-two original, distinct yegetabla families, though sS8 varieties of vegetable seed are now sold by re- tail dealers.
 Each grower produces his own varia- tions on the original forty-two vegeta- bles and the number of new varieties is constantly increasing. With flowers the work is easier and the scope wider There are 107 generic flower families to start with, and enterprising grow CTS have rung the changes on their seed until the number of flower varie- ties now sold is incalculable.
 Some vegetables lend themselves tc variations more readily than others There are seventy-four varieties of let tuce and thirty-fve kinds of onions Beans, cabbage, corn and tomatoes ap. pear in the catalogues under twenty. five and thirty different names. Mus tard is about the only vegetable thai has remained untouched by the am bilious seed growers. Up to the pres ent time one kind of mustard has sui feed for all our needs.
 Sweetpeas have eighty-siX divisions and more than three hundred subdivis ions. Tn California, where almost al "a t'Tf of 800 acres is given up to the produc tion of sweetpeas alone. The tota production yearly is about 35O,O0 pounds and even when this amount i augmented by the yield from smalle farms 1t Is almost impossible to nee the demand Sweetpeas are the mos popular flowers in America for hom gardens, except the nasturtiums, ant even these canot always compete witt the sweetpeas. Where country air ant sunshine abound sweetpeas hold un rivaled supremacy, and nasturtium are in use for window boxes and scan little city gardens where a small back yard must do duty for the flower lover
 Pansies are also a popular favorite though their price Is sometimes higl enough to be prohibltive. The ordinar, varieties, we'll selected, are not nor than $25 pound, but some of the bij variety ones, rarely colored, sell fo $50 pound. Most of the flowers whicl are produced from seed are sold il little five-cent packets, the amount varying with the value of the see6 There are about eight million of thes sold in the United States every yeal
 In California almost all the actue labor of planting and harvesting seed Is done by Chinese and Japanese mer The overseers are Americans, but tn little seeds are slowed away by def Oriental fingers, to the tune of endles Oriental chatter. One big Chinama In California has had phenomenal sue cess growing sweetpeas and producin new varieties. He has more new col ors and shapes to his credit than an American grower and his love fo flowers borders on fanaticism.
 Twenty-Five years ago by far tn largest percentage of seeds used American gardens was imported fror Europe, where the industry has receiv ca HlOIe careful dtleIllloH Ludn 4eEt Now there are 153 large seed firms i America, each handling hundreds c thousands of pounds annually. l many instances they have specialize and handle only one kind of seeC Twenty-Five of these firms deal only 1 peas and beans, eight in cabbages, an eight In tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber onions. melons and beets.
 The money these firms pay into tn