332 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



end of a little more than two weeks it was all over, the vines were 

 done — less than loo bushels per acre where with the Stone, in a good 

 season and good land, the yield should have been from 300 to 500 

 bushels per acre. We paid thirty cents per bushel — which meant 

 only $30.00 per acre where it should have been $100.00. Tomatoes 

 in Minnesota remain still a problem to be solved. 



I have time to cover hurriedly but one more canners' crop, and 

 that will be peas. Of all canning factory crops for the Minnesota 

 farmers, I believe peas will be the best. Peas were packed in Min- 

 nesota this year for the first time. It is the principal pack in Wis- 

 consin, where more peas are grown and packed than in all the rest 

 of the country. While this crop was not wholly satisfactory in Min- 

 nesota last season, neither was it in Wisconsin. Peas are a peculiar 

 farming- proposition. They are seeded with a drill like grain, about 

 three and a half bushels being used per acre. Two months ago seed 

 peas were worth about $2.25 per bushel. Today they cost from 

 $3.50 to $5.00. The seed for an acre costs about $12.00 — something 

 different from corn at forty cents. After seeding they are usually 

 dragged but never touched again until harvest time — not cultivated 

 in any way. When the oldest pods are ready — and this must be 

 determined by experienced men — the vines are cut by a mower and 

 hauled on hay wagons to the factory, where they are run through a 

 viner (or patent thresher) and the results of each load of threshed 

 green peas weighed. The farmer is given a weigh-check good for 

 the number of pounds stated thereon at $1.50 per hundred pounds. 

 An acre of good land in fair season should yield 2,000 pounds, or 

 about $30.00. This may not seem much, but when it is considered 

 that no more work is required to produce this crop than for grain 

 without the harvesting and threshing expense, it will be seen that 

 peas are a good crop for the growers, netting, as they do, from 

 $15.00 to $25.00 per acre. 



While there are varieties of peas almost innumerable, the canner 

 regards but few as especially desirable for his purposes. The Alaska 

 is the sole available early sort, and Horsford's Market Garden and 

 McLean's Advancer are late sorts. The Alaskas are a very prolific 

 variety, a sound, smooth, blue pea of fair quality. The late varieties 

 are known as sweets and are wrinkled when fully developed. The 

 Telephone is a very fine variety for canning, but it is so unreliable in 

 yield that very few canners attempt to pack it. The old-time Mar- 

 rowfats have been wholly abandoned by packers. The Alaskas are 

 sown as early as possible and begin to come into the factory about 

 June 20th. The Sweets are sown later and mature in July. The 

 season lasts about six weeks. 



