A Moment in Time
This issue featured an exciting new watermelon variety, Jubilee, and previewed the mid-winter meeting of the American Seed Trade Association, which it noted had “become largely a garden seed meeting.” Readers could learn how machines were being used to replace hand labor in vegetable growing operations. “Growers are faced with a situation that makes it expedient for them to mechanize quickly. And since much of the equipment they need has to be built to meet their requirements and its costs must be paid off over a limited life expectancy of the equipment, these growers are likely to be faced with higher production costs.”
Additionally precision planters were making their debut, as well as harvesters for specialty crops, and there was growing interest in mechanical thinners.
Facts and Figures From This 1966 Issue:
384,436 pounds of vegetable seeds are imported into the United States between July and November of 1965.
400 individual fruit are produced by one vine of the Kabob tomato variety.
4 is the number of lobes found on the pepper variety Titan.
30 pounds is the average weight of the Jubilee watermelon, pictured on the front cover of this issue.
272,375 pounds of lettuce seed are imported into the United States between July and November of 1965 — the No. 1 imported vegetable seed that year.
