ACRES OF SWEET PEAS 155 



For the latest information regarding these I 

 wrote to David Burpee, from whose answer I 

 cite a paragraph which is illuminating: 



The Australian sweet-pea growers were somewhat 

 ahead of us in the early development work of the Early 

 Flowering Spencer sweet peas. Ten years ago our Mr. 

 George W. Kerr started to cross the Standard Spencer 

 sweet pea with the old Early Grandiflora sweet pea on 

 our Fordhook Farms, and after working several years 

 he managed to get the true Spencer type into the Early 

 Flowering class, and he has been working along that 

 line continuously for ten years. In the beginning we, of 

 course, had to use the Grandiflora as one of the parents 

 in the cross so as to get the early-flowering habit com- 

 bined with the Spencer form of flower. We are now 

 listing forty-eight varieties of the Early Flowering sweet 

 peas, every one of which we originated ourselves on our 

 Fordhook Farms in Pennsylvania or on our Floredale 

 Farm in California, with the sole exception of Yarrawa, 

 one of the first Australian varieties which we imported 

 to this country. 



Yes [Mr. Burpee writes in reply to one of my questions], 

 it is possible to secure all the colors of the Standard 

 Spencers in the Early Flowering type. In fact, we 

 already have all of the principal colors in the Early 

 Flowering peas, and in addition have several shades 

 which are entirely new and which we may cross in the 

 Standard Spencers, hoping to get those shades also in 

 the older type. 



While thus retaining all the beauty of the 

 Spencers, and even improving on it, the Early 

 Flowering type has the tremendous advantage 

 of coming into bloom a month or a month and 

 a half sooner than the Spencers, now so deser- 



