THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



179 



28. The first bloom aj)peared on the 

 first row oil May 26, and on the second 

 row May 31. On June 10, twenty -five 

 pods were of edible size on the plants 

 from the sprouted peas, and it was not 

 until June 18 that an equal number 

 were of edible size on the plants from 

 the nnsprouted seed. This process of 

 planting, hence, appears to have given 

 us a gain of eight days in the maturing 

 of the crop, and when it is considered 

 how little trouble this sprouting neces- 

 sitates, it seems proper to recommend 

 this system to the amateur, and to call 

 the attention of the market gi-ower to 

 the possibility that the extra labour re- 

 quired may be off-set by the resulting 

 earliness. 



In seeking earliness through the 

 selecting of early varieties, the question 

 at once meets us as to which is the ear- 

 liest variety. As the earliness is affect- 

 ed by the date of planting, or in other 

 words the temperature or climate, an 

 answer to this question does not at 

 once occur. Thus in 1882 the Earliest 

 of All was fit for the table in fifty -four 

 days from tlie early planting ; in 1883 

 required sixty-one days for the early 

 planted and forty-five days for the later 

 planted ; in 1884 required fifty-four 

 days for the early planted. 



In our 1884 trials, the peas were 

 planted on April 28, and Cleveland's 

 Rural New Yorker had its first edible 

 pod in fifty-one days ; Daniel O'Rourke 

 in 52 days; Dexter, Ferry's Extra Early 

 Market in fifty days ; Earliest of All, 

 American Wonder, Caractaeiis, Car- 

 ter's First Crop. Express, Prince Al- 

 bert, and a seedling from Messrs. 

 Bliss, No. 72, in fifty-four days. 



By referring to the following table 

 of order of ripening, it will be seen 

 that the order of succession is not uni- 

 formly the same with diflferent plant- 

 ings, or in diflferent seasons, and we 

 may conclude that among these first 

 earliest, where such little difference in 



eai-liness is found, that variety which 

 is the better to grow must be decided 

 upon other considerations, such as size 

 of pea, prolificacy, habit of cropping, 

 &c. 



An examination of thi.s table makes 

 it quite evident that more than one 

 year's record is necessary to establish a 

 v;ii iety as the earlie.st of }ieas. 



E. Lewis Sturtevant, Director. 



SEEDLINO PEACH TREES. 



'• The idea often prevails that a seed- 

 ling tree is healthier than a budded one. 

 If we Avere assured that seedling trees 

 would invariaV)ly come true, never have 

 the yellows, never overbear and become 

 exhausted, never be attacked by the 

 peach borer or any other enemy, and 

 would bring as high prices in market, 

 why then of course we would all raise 

 seedling varietes and no other ; but this 

 is not the case in any one of the above 

 suppositions. Many years ago I planted 



