The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-06
California Raises More Than
Any Other State
SOME ARE VERY EXPENSIVE
Double Petunla Seed Are Worth Ten
Times Weight In GoId-e3s Va
retles Of Vegetable Seed on
the Market.
eY FREDERIC ]. HAsklN.

than all the previous years of its ex-
istence. In that time seed-growers have
not only produced more than half the
seed used in this country, as compared
with s. smuch smaller percentage in for
mer years, but they have demonstrated
the fact that we 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 California, where in the
Santa Clar valley, 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 vegetables will
| give 200 pounds to the acre, and others
: 1000 or 1000 pounds. A conservative aver
age is 500 pounds to the acre. Flowers
run to the most remarkable 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 seeds. The. double petunia.
/ which is known to seed growers as the
"shyest seeder," will sometimes fail to
| yield q pound to the acre.
| This inability of the double petuna to
| hold its seed makes 1t very valuable It's
| retail price is $40 an ounce. or $1120
| pound. 1t Is worth more than ten times
| its weight In gold. This seed is much
| finer than gunpowder and almost as fine
! as cooking flour. 1t Is almost impossible
I to distinguish the separate seeds, and
| Is the most expensive kind handled by any
dealer. The cheapest seeds sold by the
| pound are those of the beet and mus
! tard, which cost only cents a pound.
| In plentiful seasons sweet peas some
| times sell for cents a pound
/
There is a great difference in price
| between the seeds of an unnamed variety
! of flower or vegetable, and some So
| called novelty" which growers have pro-
! duced from the generic plant. These nov
elites" are produced in various ways, by
! selection, by crossing the seeds, and
| they are sometimes developed into distinct
varieties. There are only forty-two origi-
nal, distinct vegetable families, though
| 1888 varieties of vegetable seed are now
| sold by retail dealers.
| Each grower produces his own varia-
| lions on the original forty-two vegetables
| and the number of new varieties is con-
| stantly increasing. With flowers, the work
| is easier and the scope wider. There are
107 generic flower families to start with,
| and enterprising growers have rung the
changes on their seed until the number
! of flower varieties now sold Is incalcula-
| BILE.
Some vegetables lend themselves to
variations more readily than others There
are seventy-four varieties of lettuce and
| thirty-fve kinds of onions. Beans cab
| bage, corn and tomatoes appear in the
| catalogues under twenty-five and thirty
different names. Mustard is about the
only vegetables that has remained un-
| touched by the ambitious seed growers.
| Up to the present time one kind of mus
tard has sufficed for all our needs
|
Sweet peas have eighty-six divisions
| and over 800 subdivisions. In California,
where almost all the flower seeds are
| grown one farm of 500 acres is given
| up to the production of sweet peas alone.
| The total production yearly is about 35O
| 0O0 pounds, and even when this amount
is augmented by the yield from smaller
farms 1t Is almost impossible to meet
! the demand. Sweet peas are the most
popular flower In America for home gar
dens except the nasturtiums. and even
| these cannot compete with the sweet
| peas. Where country air and unshine
| abound sweet peas hold unrivaled SUI
premacy and nasturtiums are in use for
| window-boxes and scant little city gar
| dens, where a small backyard must do
| duty for the flower lover.
Pansies are also a popular favorites,
though their price is sometimes high
| enough to be prohibtive. The ordinary
4
s25 pound. but some of the big velvety
| ones, rarely colored, sell for $50 a pound.
| Most OF the flowers which are produced
from seed are sold in little scent pack
cts. the amounts varying with the value
of the seed. There are about 100000 of
these sold in the United States every
year.
| In California almost all the actual labor
| of planting and harvesting seeds is done
by Chinese and Japanese men. The over
| seers are Americans, but the little seeds
| are slowed away by deft Oriental fingers,
| to the tune of endless Oriental chatter.
One big Chinamau in California has had
phenomenal success growing peas and
producing new varieties. He has more
new colors and shapes to his credit than
any American grower, and his love for
the flowers borders on fanaticism.
Twenty-Five years ago by far the largest
percentage of seeds used In American gar
dens was imported from Europe where
the industry has received more careful
attention than here. Now there are 1853
large seed firms In America each hand
ling hundreds of thousands of pounds
annually In many instances they have
specialized. and handle only one kind
of seed. Twenty-Five of these firms deal
only in peas and beans, eight in cab
bages, eight In tomatoes, lettuce, GU
cumbers, onions, melons and beets.
Ihe money these firms pay into the
Santa Clara valley, California, amounts
to more than a million and a half dollars
yearly. This valley produces little more
| than 100000 pounds of seed per an
mum, and from 100000 to 100000 pounds
are sold yearly in the United States, al
| though still much that is used for gar
dening is imported. The cauliflower seed
Is the most expensive of all the vege-
| tables as II is the most difficult to OBJ
tain. Its wholesale price is S13 a pound.
| Next to this in value are the high grade
varieties of beans, which cost s2.5 and
50 a pound.
Central Michigan and Western New
York produce almost all the bean seed
used In this country. One locality in
Michigan produces 1000 bushels yearly,
and the New York output doubles that
| number. oPtatoes and corn are sold so
extensively that no estimate can be made
of the amount produced each year. Two
million pounds of turnip seed goes into
American soil every season, but most of
1t Is imported from England. One million
pounds of radishes are planted here, one
tenth of which Is raised in California and
the resi- in Europe. OF the million ounds
of seed onions which the annual crop
demands. California yields 100000 pounds,
Peculiar to Itself