170 



HORTICULTURE. 



August 10, 1907 



Seed Trade 



still another week of favorable wea- 

 ther for crops, and corn has responded 

 nobly. Eight or ten weeks more of 

 such weather and we shall get a corn 

 crop. But shall we get such weather 

 for eight or ten weeks? Who dares 

 say yes? 



Estimates as to percentages which 

 will be delivered of the present sea- 

 son's pea crop are a trifle previous, but 

 there will be a heavy shortage in can- 

 ners' varieties, as nearly every grower 

 was oversold, and the same may be 

 eaid of the large podded sorts, such as 

 Gradus, Stratagem, Duke of Albany, 

 Telephone, etc. 



This tendency to oversell is very 

 general, and is mainly due to estimat- 

 ing the yields too high. It is the al- 

 most universal practice to estimate 

 plantings of nearly every variety of 

 peas at not less than live-fold; a few 

 varieties at six and seven and not 

 above two or three under five-told. 

 This standard was established many 

 years ago, and doubtless was the nor- 

 mal average yield at the time, but two 

 important factors seem to be overlook- 

 ed in estimating yields of peas; one is 

 the soil and another is the relative vigor 

 of the variety. A new variety of gi'eat 

 vigor and hardiness, and with a strong 

 soil just suited to peas, and virgin to 

 this crop, may yield seven or eight- 

 fold, but in a few years the variety 

 begins to lose its vitality and the soil 

 becomes inpoverished in the elements 

 necessary to produce peas or any le- 

 guminous crop, and the yield decreases. 

 Failures become frequent, and as the 

 variety declines in vigor, the tendency 

 to depart from its true type increases, 

 until it "runs out" and becomes a sort 

 of "mongrel." The same conditions 

 obtain throughout the vegetable world, 

 though deterioration in peas may de- 

 velop more readily than in many other 

 families of plants. 



In estimating the yields from his 

 plantings, the grower tails to take into 

 account this deterioration as a rule, 

 neither does he make due allowance 

 for deterioration in the soil, and the re- 

 sult is that, instead of harvesting crops 

 averaging five and six-fold, he much 

 more often gets only three and four. 



The principal seed pea growers have 

 been interviewed on this point, and 

 they are unanimous in declaring that 

 not oftener than once in five or six 

 years have they had an average of five- 

 fold from their entire plantings. Not- 

 withstanding this fact, they year after 

 year base their prices on a five-fold 

 yield, and judging by this standard, 

 one might think many of them ex- 

 pected ten-fold! 



CLAY'5 

 Fertilizer 



56 lbs. $3.25 



112 lbs. $5.50 



Wm. Elliott (SiSoTis 



201 Fulton Street 

 NEMT YORK 



Taking five-fold, however, as the 

 generally accepted standard, it is 

 easily seen ths.t where the price 

 is based on this fold, and it proves 

 to be the only three or four, as is 

 positively the case four years out of 

 five, the grower loses twenty to forty 

 percent of his expected crop, and in- 

 stead of a profit, he works for a year 

 practically for nothing, and sometimes 

 even suffers a more or less heavy loss. 

 Whatever fold he gets from his acre- 

 age one fold must be reserved for seed. 

 Thus if he gets five-fold, he has four- 

 fold to deliver on his contract. If he 

 gets four-fold, he has three to deliver, 

 and if he gets three-fold, he has but 

 two to deliver. 



Assuming Alaskas cost him $2.00, and 

 they will not cost much less, if he 

 gives them the care they should have, 

 and also takes account of the wear 

 and tear of his plant and machinery, 

 he can sell them at $2.25 making a 

 profit of 2,5c per bushel on a five-fold 

 yield, but if his crop is only four-fold, 

 he just about breaks even, while any- 

 thing under four-fold means positive 

 loss, and this loss is in proportion to 

 the shrinkage of the crop below four- 

 fold. 



These are not imaginary figures or 

 estimates, but are based on facts, and 

 explain why so many growers of peas 

 and beans who have sold hundreds of 

 thousands of bushels in the aggregate, 

 have so little to show for their life's 

 work, and almost without exception 

 they are temperate, frugal men. How 

 long they will continue as they have 

 been doing for at least the lifetime of 

 two generations of growers, can only 

 be conjectured, but it is mainly a test 

 of financial endurance, those with the 

 largest financial resources and relative- 

 ly smallest expenses enduring the 

 longest. 



Why do not the principal growers 

 who should be fully alive to the facts 

 here stated, recast their schedule of 

 prices, and base them upon actual re- 

 sults, and not upon yearly estimates 

 which seldom meet expectations? Cer- 

 tain it is that none of them are mak- 

 ing much profit from their business, 

 and as time goes on they will make 

 less instead of more, as deterioration 

 in both seed and soil will continue. 



THE LILY BULB OUTLOOK. 



Reports come to hand from Japan to 

 the effect that the plant-louse has 

 caused fatal injury to the Japan longi- 

 florum and multiflorura lilies in Bashu 

 and Miura districts, the estimated loss 

 on bulbs being 40 per cent. From the 

 Azores we are informed of a consider- 

 able shrinkage in quality due to the 

 long-continued dry weather of the past 

 six months, which has unfavorably af- 

 fected lilies, callas and other similar 

 crops. The supply is up to expecta- 

 tions but the bulbs are undersized. 



Large sized giganteums are de- 

 cidedlv scarce in all markets. 



CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Sotitbworth Brothers, Beverly, Mass. 

 — Trade list of pines, firs, spruces, 

 arbor-vitae. etc. 



Wm. Baylor Hartland & Sons, Ard- 

 Cairn, Cork, Ireland; Catalogue of 

 Daffodils and Rare Tulips. 



Mohican Peony Gardens. Sinking 

 Springs. Pa. — Descriptive list of one 

 hundred best varieties of peonies. 



L. Boehmer & Co., Yokohama, Japan. 



Headquarters for 



PLANT STAKES 



CANE STAKES 



Long selected stock, thin and wiry, 

 very strong. 



per liK) per lOIK) per 500(1 



Southern... 8 to 9 ft. 75c. $6.00 $25.00 

 Japanese . ..6 to 7 ft. 75c. 5.50 25.00 



STEEL STAKES 



No. 8 Steel Wire Qalvanized 



For Staking American Beauty and other 



strong and tall growing Roses. 



per 10(1 per looo per UN) per KOO 



2 ft.. .$0.55 $5.25 4 ft. ..$1.10 $10.00 

 2H " •• ■7° 6.50 j 4)4 " .. 1.25 11.50 



3 " .. .80 7.50 5 " .. 1.40 13.00 

 3H " •• .95 9,co :6 " ,. 1.60 15.50 



MICHELL'S RELIABLE HOSE 



Made expressly for hard usage 



Ask most any florist about it. 



3 Ply per loot 12c.' 4 Ply per foot uHc 



I Our Advance Price List of Bulbs is Ready, I 



HENRY F. MICHELL GO. 



IOI8 Market Street 

 PHILADELPHIA - - PA. 



Christmas Flowering ; 



Sweet Pea Seed 



DIRECT FROM ORIQINATOR. 



Christmas Pink, Florence Denzer, white 1-4 lb 



75c; 1 lb. $2.00. I 



Hrs. E. Wild, new carmine retj, 2 or. 75c: 1-4 lb. ' . 

 $1.50. 

 These popular Florists' Sweet Peas have 

 been grown by 



OVER 3000 FLORIST- 



all over the world to the best satisfaction j 

 of the most critical growers, and 



HAVE NO EQUAL. ! 



I 



Also 10 New Varieties offered for the first time, 



Salmon, Pink, Blue Purple, Yellow and 

 Variegated In separate colors. 



Ask for Descriptive Price List. These 

 now varieties will be ready in September. 

 Sweet pea Directions with every order. 



ANT. C. ZVOLANEK 



Bound Brook, N EW JERS EY 



CABBAGE PLANTS 



Early and Late Flat Dutch, Succession and Savoy 

 $1.00 per 1000, 10,000 and over Soc. per looc. 



CELERY, Golden Self Blanching, Giant Pascal. { 



White Plume, Winter Queen, Golden Heart, $i.oo per . 



1000, 10,000 and over Soc per looo, j 



Borecole, Brussels Sprouts, Leek, $i.oo per looo. j 



Lettuce, Grand Rapid. Boston Market, Defiance, I 



$T.oo per 1000. Moss Curled Parsley $i.oo per looo. 1 



My Plants are Fine. Caih with order, please. I 

 SAMUEL W. SHANKLIN. - WHJTE MARSH, MD. | 



CELERY PLANTS 



100.000 WHITE PLUME 

 All Transplanted plants. Many rootlets. Unlike i 

 those grown in the ordinary way. None better. 

 500, $1.50; 1000, $2,50: 5C00 or over $2.00 per 1000. j 

 Cash with Order ! 



W. B. DU RIE. 



Rahway, N. J. 



Wholesale catalogue of Japanese lily 

 bulbs, flower roots, seeds and nursery 

 stock. Alfred Unger. proprietor. This 

 is the "Jubilee Year" of this establish- 

 ment, founded in 1882 and the cata- 

 logue is appropriately complete. 



