Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., Feb. lo, 1897. 

 Honorable Cointnissioner of Agriculture, Alba7iy. 



Sir : — The enclosed report is submitted for publication under 

 the provisions of the Experiment Station Extension bill, and it is 

 a complement to Bulletin iii , issued a year ago this month. 

 This Bulletin 1 1 1 was the first experiment station report upon 

 sweet peas. It called forth some harsh criticisms, which were 

 very largely due, I think, to a misconception of the problem at 

 which we were working. Our motives in its preparation were 

 two : to popularize the sweet pea, and to give an account of the 

 varieties which were actually sold by the dealers last year. Our 

 estimates of varieties were often very unlike the estimates which 

 are currently made of them ; and it was charged that many of 

 our varieties must have been very untrue to type or else grown 

 from very poor seed. If this charge was true, it only shows that 

 poor seed was in the market and it is evidence enough that the 

 test was needed. In other words, our eiGFort was to determine the 

 exact merits of the sweet peas commonly ofiered for sale, not to 

 grow the strains of fanciers and plant-breeders. This fact was 

 stated in the bulletin and the reader was cautioned that our 

 estimates of the varieties were drawn solely from our local tests, 

 as follows : ' ' An attempt was made the past season to obtain all 

 thesweet peas which were offered by American seedsmen. ^ * * 

 The reader should remember, however, that these opinions are 

 founded solely upon the behavior of the varieties upon our own 

 grounds last year. They are not intended to serve as a general 

 or infallible estimate of the varieties. The accounts of these 

 varieties are all made directly from the plants as they grew on 

 our grounds, uninfluenced by published descriptions. " 



Having grown the sweet peas of the retail seedsmen last year, 

 we have this year turned our attention to the types and strains of 

 the experts and breeders. It is evident, therefore, that the 

 descriptions of this year are not comparable with those of last 

 year ; but the sweet pea lover may be interested to study the dis- 

 similarities in the accounts of the two seasons made from seeds 

 from different sources. In order that there should be as great 

 uniformity as possible in our own work of the two seasons, we 

 have grown the peas of this year upon the same ground which 



