THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



What the future may have in store we know not, but that greater glories 

 await us, the past gives us every reason to hope and to believe. 



Cultivation 



The next phase we have to consider is how to treat the sweet pea so as 

 to get a maximum of quality and quantity. The ordinary everyday method 

 is to sow the seed in rows very thickly, as soon as the ground is ready to 

 work in spring. Then, with the exception of giving supports of some kind, 

 the grower leaves the plants to take care of themselves until the flowers 

 appear. On some naturally rich soil, if perchance the rainfall is more than 

 ordinarily abundant, very good results may thus be obtained. However, 

 the true lover and sweet pea enthusiast will not be satisfied by any such 

 uncertain methods, but will cast about to find means whereby success is 

 more nearly assured. 



Apart from good seed, the fundamental requirement, the all-important 

 foundation of success, lies in the proper preparation of the soil. If this 

 operation is shirked, or in any way skimmed over, your efforts will, in a 

 great measure, be set at naught, and disappointment will almost surely be 

 3^our lot, unless you are fortunate enough to possess one of those rare con- 

 ditions of an ideal soil, rich, deep and porous. Possessing this, you might 

 well ignore this part dealing with the preparation of the soil. But as in 

 about ninety-five per cent, of the cases we are only blest with some six 

 to eight inches of tolerably good soil, we must labor heartily to improve 

 this, so that we may have from twenty-four to thirty inches of well- 

 manured compost. The time to do this, to the best advantage, is during 

 the months of September and October, as at that time the ground is 

 usually in good condition for maneuvering. Work generally is not so 

 pressing as in spring, and, furthermore, time is then given for settling of 

 the soil before planting. 



Let me now describe the method which I have found very satisfactory, 

 though making no claims to superiority over other methods. Assuming a 

 hypothetical case of six rows, each fifty feet long, we would lay out a 

 rectangular plot thirty-six feet by fifty, and on the shorter or thirty-six 

 foot side, three feet from the corner, set a stake, then every six feet a 

 stake, until the six rows are indicated. Stakes should be placed opposite 

 each other at both ends and should denote the center of each row. Now, 

 commencing on the fifty foot side, we remove the top nine inches of soil 

 from three feet on both sides of the center of row one and place it out- 

 side of our plot entirely, to be later carted or wheeled to finish the last 

 row. The top soil being removed, we dig a trench (always using the end 

 stakes as a center) eighteen inches deep and two feet wide, placing the 

 subsoil removed on either side of the trench where the good topsoil has 

 just been dug off. Next, commencing on row two, we remove the top- 

 soil from the six-foot-wide strip, and to the same depth as before, using 

 it to fill trench one, mixing with it about a ton of half-decayed farmyard 

 manure, fifty pounds each of bonemeal and woodashes, and about two 



