Sweet Peas 



from about 400 Ibs. of Spencer or waved varieties, 

 to 1,000 Ibs. of old type varieties per acre. After 

 threshing, the seed is removed to the cleaning 

 houses and put through a series of electrically 

 driven mills. This milling is so perfect that 

 hand picking is not necessary to make a market- 

 able sample. From San Francisco and other 

 centres the seed is despatched to all parts of the 

 world. In California the labour problem is a 

 most serious one in all seed-growing undertakings. 

 Everything that can possibly be done by machinery 

 is done, as the cost, i.e. the wages, of even the 

 commonest labour is two to three times what it 

 is in Britain. Then there are difficulties some- 

 times with the weather even in that so-called 

 perfect region heat waves come and things are 

 rushed prematurely to maturity, with the result 

 that the crops are well nigh failures, and the mer- 

 chants have to be content with twenty-five per 

 cent., or less sometimes, of the amounts contracted 

 for. Aphis or fly is another trouble, and frequently 

 large areas have to be ploughed up, the trouble 

 gets so bad. 



Messrs. W. Atlee Burpee & Co., of Phila- 

 delphia, who are so well known throughout the 

 Sweet Pea world, have a ranch for seed-growing 

 in California. 



