One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered

From the opening

Which are the best garden seeds to use, those raised in Ohio and the East or those raised in Washington and Oregon or those raised in this State?

It has been definitely shown by experience and experiment that is does not matter much where the seed comes from, providing it is well grown and good of its kind. There is no such advantage in changing seed from one locality to another as is commonly supposed. Besides, it is now very difficult to tell positively where seed is grown, because California wholesale seeds are retailed in all the States you mention, and the contents of many small packets of seeds distributed in California went first of all from California to the Eastern retailers, who advertise and sell them everywhere.

Would cloth do to cover a hotbox to raise lettuce, radishes, etc., for winter use where we get a very heavy rainfall?

Yes, if you make the cloth waterproof for its own preservation from mildew and other agencies of decay. The following recipe for waterproofing cloth is taken from our book on "California Vegetables": Soften 4 1/2 ounces of glue in 8 3/4 pints of water, cold at first; then dissolve in, say, a washboiler full (6 gallons) of warm water, with 2 1/2 ounces of hard soap; put in the cloth and boil for an hour, wring and dry; then prepare a bath of a pound of alum and a pound of salt, soak the prepared cloth in it for a couple of hours, rinse with clear water and dry. One gallon of the glue solution will soak about ten yards of cloth. This cloth has been used in southern California for several years without mildewing, and it will hold water by the pailful. Where the rain is heavy and frequent, the cloth should be well supported by slats and given slope to shed water quickly. Of course, this is only a makeshift.

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