54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



leading the way to the popular interest in the Sweet Pea. Your 

 annual Sweet Pea exhibit was already a regular thing and credit- 

 able before the rest of us saw anything very remarkable in them. 

 I remember with what kindness Mr. Eobert Parquhar first gave 

 me Mr. Eckford's address, and I never forgot his wise injunction 

 to use the confidence with due caution. I did so as long as I 

 could, but the wave of Sweet Pea interest swept over the countr}', 

 and I felt that the truly American thing was to help it on in 

 every way. I suppose Boston has reaped its share of the profit 

 coming from the sale of probably one hundred and fifty tons 

 annually of Sweet Pea seed in this country. Seven years ago 

 your catalogues were cautious aboiit recommending the Eckford 

 novelties, and well they might be, for to this day very few of the 

 imported Eckford packets show up well the first year in our rigid 

 New England climate and uncertain soil. You must have them if 

 you keep up Avith the procession. Almost every seed of these im- 

 ported packets does well on the Pacific coast, and American grown 

 seed one year from Mr. Eckford's introduction is strong and shows 

 us these novelties very nearly at their best. No one Avho is well 

 up on the subject of this flower questions the remarkable merit of 

 the finest Eckford novelties. And I believe we are to put such 

 competitive interest into this flower that we shall hold Mr. Eck- 

 ford's novelties up to their highest standard in size and (j^uality. 

 Canada seems to suit them well. Prom letters received it is evi- 

 dent that enthusiasm there is running high on Sweet Peas. And 

 places along our northern border, sections also where they have a 

 rich alluvial soil, up in the Northwest and the whole length of 

 the Pacific coast, — in all these localities they can smile at the 

 difficulty of growing the finest sorts, and giant blossoms are no 

 fiction with them. I receive through the mail the pressed 

 standards of blossoms measuring an inch and nine-sixteenths in 

 width. When you have a blossom that exceeds an inch and a 

 half, it looks like a hollyhock to an enthusiast. One grower is at 

 Avork on a giant-flowered strain. Another writes me that he is 

 developing a strain with five blossoms to a stem. By these signs 

 I have ceased to be anxious about the retrograde of these fine 

 things. We are going to have seed soon that is not spoiled by 

 the jobbers' calculation to the quarter of a cent per pound on the 

 quantity harvested per acre. Giant-flowered Sweet Peas are not 

 made in that way, nor held up to the Eckford type. 



