438 



HORT1CU LTU R£ 



April 7, 1906 



Garden Culture of Sweet Peas. 



Twenty-five year- ago sweet peas were very little 

 cultivated, as compared with the enormous amount 

 I seed that will be planted this coming season. In 

 fact, I think it would be quite conservative to say that 

 fifty pounds of seed is planted today where one pound 

 was then. In those days our list of varieties was con- 

 fined to a comparatively few shades of color; we had 

 white, purple, scarlet, pink, and quite a few combina- 

 tions of colors; such as scarlet and white, and scarlet- 

 striped. Many of you will remember the old names; 

 there were Painted Lady, Invincible Scarlet, Captain 

 Clark, and a few others. Before me as I write. I have 

 a prominent seedsman's catalogue of the year 1885 : and 

 three lines are devoted to sweet peat — describing white, 

 scarlet, and mixed. When, twenty years ago the com- 

 ing summer (August 14, 1886), the writer was able to 

 make an exhibit of six distinct colors of sweet peas be- 

 fore the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Boston, 

 he thought that he had a very nice collection of sweet 

 peas. Today the named varieties of this flower are 

 numbered by hundreds. But it is not alone 

 this remarkable increase of named kinds that has 

 given the sweet pea the truly wonderful position it now 

 holds amongst annual flowers, but also the simply mar- 

 velous advance that has been made in the size of the 

 individual flowers, and the increased number of flowers 

 on one stem. The sweet pea of today in its best 

 form is something so exquisitely beautiful as to be 

 beyond the power of pen to describe. After years of 

 experimenting, the method of cultivation, that taken 

 one season with another, gives me the most satisfactory 

 flowers is as follows: The earlier sweet peas are sown 

 in the spring the more thriftily the vines will grow, and 

 the larger will be the flowers gathered from them. Just 

 as soon as the soil is dry and mellowed sufficiently to 

 receive the seed, it should be sown. The seed should be 

 planted in rows, and covered at least eight inches deep. 

 This is clone as follows : Having prepared the ground 

 and made the rows the desired depth, we may drop the 

 seed and draw into the row soil enough to cover the 

 seed two inches deep ; as soon as the young plants 

 appear through this covering, draw into the row two 

 inches more soil, and so on until the trench has been 

 filled up even with the surface of the ground. From 

 the time the seed is sown until the young plants have 

 started to run upon whatever supports are provided, the 

 greatest care must be taken that the soil, at any stage, 

 does not cake on the surface — keep the soil loose all the 

 time for satisfactory results. Sweet peas must be 

 bushed just as soon as well up. Use birch brush or 

 wire poultry netting. Whatever the vines are trained 

 upon must be very firmly secured in position, so that 

 the vines when fully grown, being very heavy, will not 

 be blown down. In nine seasons out of ten, the secret 

 of success with sweet peas is to "plant them very early, 

 and plant them very deep." as above explained. Be 

 most liberal in sowing the seed; sweet peas always do 

 much better when sown thickly; put a pound of seed in 

 not exceeding sixty feet of row. One last word, and I 

 am done. Commence to gather the blooms from the 

 moment the vines show color, and gather every fully 

 opened flower after that daily. Do not allow a single 

 bloom to wither on the vines, as when seed pods begin to 

 form your sweet peas gradually cease blooming. 



The Eel Worm Question 



Editor Hokticultuke : — I have read in your issue 

 of March 17 some notes by E. L. Adams on a subject 

 that is very dear to the hearts of many rose growers 

 (that "dear." Mr. Editor, is a little joke of mine and I 

 hope that you will not blue pencil it). The story of the 

 life history of nematodes as there given is very inter- 

 esting and instructive, and 1 am sure the treatment of a 

 scientific subject in such a readable manner is always 

 appreciated by your subscribers. 



The point, however, to which I desire to call special 

 attention is that, "The problem of control (of nema- 

 todes) is not difficult." Well, well, this certainly is 

 doubly welcome news to rose growers who have strug- 

 gled for years to combat the ravages of this miserable 

 little pest, which we are told has now been definitely 

 located as an animal, although there are times when we 

 tillers of the soil have been prone to class it with 

 those infernal demons which have no physical being. 



Can you not induce Mr. Adams to give us poor unsci- 

 entific mortals who are thirsting for knowledge, a little 

 more definite information on this subject? He has a 

 sure method to "fix" eel worms "with green houses 

 that are idle in the summer." We are out of that 

 cinch, however, as rose houses in this vicinity are gen- 

 erally pretty busy at that time of the year. 



"Freezing will destroy large numbers." That is 



g I. We are able to take advantage of this while the 



soil is still in the field, but as a rule, the "large num- 

 bers" do not appear until they have multiplied in the 

 roots, and as most of the forcing roses are not hardy 

 under glass, we must he content with the execution we 

 did in the field. 



"The most practical method is to sterilize the soil." 

 Well, possible for cucumbers, but certainly not for roses. 

 Give us a good rich, mellow loam that has not been 

 used for roses and we will dispense with the sterilizing 

 process. Suppose, however, we unfortunately get this 

 sterilizing bee in our bonnets. Sterilize our sand for 

 cuttings, sterilize the pots, sterilize the soil for potting, 

 sterilize the soil for planting, sterilize the manure for 

 top dressing, and finally sterilize all water before it is 

 allowed to touch the soil. Does this seem the most 

 practical method? Yet we must carry it out in full if 

 we would annihilate the pest completely. 



"Liming the soil ... is helpful." Personally. I 

 have great faith in liming, but still. Dr. Stone, the 

 best authority on nematodes, says that lime does not 

 kill them. Nevertheless the practical rose grower 

 knows that liming is helpful and up to the present time 

 it is. at least to some of us, the "most practical 

 method." 



"Mustard can be sown and when plentifully covered 

 with galls pulled up and burned." Now isn't that a 

 lovely fairy tale? We sow mustard, and, as Mr. Ad- 

 ams says, the eel worms "enter and multiply." After 

 they have multiplied freely and grown good and fat we 

 pull up the roots : some of them will come up, certainlv 

 not all. What becomes of those that are left? We 

 have pulled up the original animals but have left their 

 children, and perhaps, their children's children. 



Verily "the problem of control is not difficult," at 

 least, with a facile pen and a copious supply of ink. 



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