258 



The World's Commercial Products 



By permission of the Canadian Government 



EXPERIMENTAL PLANTATION OF POTATOES 



the potato, pulse (chiefly peas) formed a great part of the food of the working classes of the 

 United Kingdom, and more especially in England. So important was this crop considered 

 that in the letting or taking of a farm the acreage of Siddavv land (the term by which land 

 that would grow good boiling peas was known in Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester) 

 was always taken into consideration. In 1905 no fewer than 428,497 acres of agricultural land 

 in the United Kingdom were occupied with peas and beans, the total yield for 1905 being 

 12,707,747 bushels. In addition to this we imported in 1905, 3,240,926 cwt. of peas and 

 beans, our average annual imports of these commodities for the last ten years being 

 4,374,220 cwt. 



PEAS 



The Common Pea (Pisum sativum) has been cultivated from very remote times. 

 The pea plant is covered with a delicate glaucous bloom, and its white or pale violet 

 flowers are familiar to all. The pods are pendulous, smooth, deep green, and variable in size 

 and may contain any number up to thirteen (rarely more) peas. The peas when ripe are'also 

 variable, some being white and round, others blue and wrinkled, and a few large, irregular, and 

 dull green. 



Besides the varieties of peas whose seeds are edible, there is a section denominated u sugar 

 peas,"' the members of which are destitute of the inner film peculiar to the pods of other 

 kinds. They . are consequently more fleshy and crisp, and admit of being cut and dressed 

 in exactly the same manner as French beans. This species is more popular in France than in 

 this country. 



