BREEDING AND SEED IMPROVEMENT 69 



the field. Another difficulty experienced was in 

 harvesting. Vines were cut with a mowing ma- 

 chine, and raked into windrows with a horse rake. 

 Unseasonable weather dampened the pods, which 

 later dried. The drying process cracked open the 

 pods and the peas fell in every direction. These 

 points are mentioned as factors to be avoided. One 

 Dakota farmer writes that the farmers could have 

 saved nearly all the crop if they had forked over 

 the piles immediately after the rain. The state ex- 

 periment station has secured yields of 15 to 25 

 bushels to the acre, and it is evident the state is well 

 adapted to the industry. 



Possibilities in Breeding. Beyond question the 

 future has much in store for those who will care- 

 fully select and breed peas along well-defined lines. 

 M. B. Keeney, one of the largest seed growers in 

 New York, says : " There are great possibilities open 

 to the careful student of peas, in selecting and re- 

 selecting, with reference to purity and productive- 

 ness. However, if selections are made on account 

 of productiveness only, there is great danger of 

 drifting away from the true type of the variety, and 

 while increased productiveness may be obtained, 

 there may at the same time be a loss in quality, of 

 earliness, or both. A man who does hybridizing in 

 peas should not expect to get more than one new 

 variety out of 200 crosses. If he saves all that 

 seem to be fairly good, he will soon have a great 

 accumulation of types and strains of doubtful value. 

 Then again, a cross or a selection may seem to be 

 particularly interesting during the first two or three 

 years, but later it may develop other qualities which 

 make it undesirable. It generally takes five to ten 



