Cornell University, Ithaca, February 1, 1896. 

 EonorahU Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhani/: 



Sir.— A good friend once wrote us that.it might be well enough 

 to make a bulletin on chrysanthemums for florists, but that what 

 the peojjle really want is a bulletin on cabbages. We replied 

 that if we make a bulletin on cabbages, the florist will write 

 that such literature may be allowable, but that the people 

 want a bulletin on sweet peas. And the florist may add, with 

 much force, that whilst there are bulletins enough on cabbages, 

 there are none whatever on sweet peas. All this simply means 

 that the constituencies of a government experiment station are 

 exceedingly various, and that all, alike, help to support it. There 

 are probably more persons in this state who grow sweet peas than 

 there are who grow cabbages; at least, such ought to be the case. 

 There is a wide-spread feeling that flower-growing is not a com- 

 mercial occupation, but simply a sentimental one; yet people who 

 buy and sell flower seeds and cut flowers and flower plants, have 

 reason to hold a contrary opinion. Flower-growing, both for 

 home and for market, is rapidly increasing in the east; and of all 

 horticultural occupations, this has received the least scientific 

 attention in this country. We shall be sorry to offend our cor- 

 respondent a second time, but we shall lay the blame upon the 

 sweet pea. The plant is so attractive that we cannot help it. 



In this study of the sweet pea, I have associated with me one 

 of my students, who is fitting himself to be a landscape gardener. 

 Mr. Wyman has made a faithful record of our varieties during 

 the season, and I am convinced that he has good taste in mat- 

 ters of flower-growing. All the detail work in Part II. is his. 



The bulletin is submitted for publication under Chapter 230 



of the Laws of 1895. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



14 



