Ji!i,y 17, 1918. 



The Florists^ Review 



A G)rner of the Exhibition of the Oregon Sweet Pea Society, Portland^ July 8. 



sweet pea diseases that if we would be- 

 lieve all we read on the subject, the 

 days of the sweet pea are numbered. 

 Now I, for one, do not believe this to 

 be the case, for, having been in touch 

 with sweet peas practically all my life, 

 I have only observed isolated instances 

 of disease; nowhere have I ever seen 

 it in the form of a scourge. About this 

 time, in some sections of Pennsylvania, 

 we lose plants wholesale, but my ob- 

 servations have led me to the conclusion 

 that this is simply due to extreme heat 

 and drought, and it is worth noting that 

 fall planted peas are not liable to go 

 off as early in the season as those sown 

 in the spring, this being undoubtedly 

 due to the fact that the former have 

 made better and, in most instances, 

 deeper root growth, the plants being 

 therefore more able to withstand ex- 

 treme heat and drought. 



The Streak Disease. 



This drying up of the vines I have 

 often heard called blight, but it is sim- 

 ply, as I have already stated, the effects 

 of continued dry weather and extreme 

 heat. Therefore, when I mentioned dis- 

 ease I had in mind "streak," Thielavia 

 «asieola, which has troubled so many 

 growers in England, 



The majority of the scientists who 

 ^ave studied streak disease seem to 

 nave arrived at the conclusion that er- 

 ors in manuring and watering were 

 jne cause of the trouble. While located 

 ^-ngland, where I grew sweet peas 

 on a large scale for exhibition purposes, 



nave in some seasons had many rows 

 "I I'lants flooded for several days in 

 "(•"•ession, during excessive rainfalls, 

 ^"" yet no bad effects followed, this 

 „,7^,^°'^^*less due to perfect drainage 

 f" 7®P trenching. This fact, there- 



•■<■. leads me to the conclusion that 



wrong use of manures may be the 



••0 of the trouble. We are told that 



h,.| I i^'^g^nous manures must be with- 



ering bacteria in the root nodules die of 

 inanition and the plant is therefore 

 susceptible to disease. Therefore, where 

 disease has prevailed it is well to avoid 

 the too free use of farmyard manure. 

 If the soil must have humus, apply the 

 dung to the previous crop, or use it 

 only in a thoroughly rotted condition, 

 as in that state most of the nitrogen 

 will previously have been liberated. 



SWEET PEA TRIALS AT CORNELL. 



[A report by A. C. Beal, presented to the 

 American Sweet Pea Society at Boston, July 12, 

 1913. ] 



At this time it may be desirable to 

 note the progress made in the sweet pea 

 trials. This work was undertaken in 

 the autumn of 1909, when plantings 

 were made for the purpose of deter- 

 mining whether it is feasible to plant 

 sweet peas in the fall. The results of 

 this work are reported in Bulletin No. 

 .301. The testing of varieties has cov- 

 ered four seasons. During this period 

 a large number of varieties have been 



grown each year. These have not all 

 been (distinct, for a number of varieties 

 have been grown every year for the 

 purposes of comparison. The number 

 of varieties grown each year is as fol- 

 lows: 



1010 

 1911 

 1012 

 1913 



.469 

 .435 

 .370 

 .200 



When we began our studies of sweet 

 peas, it was decided to make a thorough 

 study of the evolution of the sweet pea, 

 and for this purpose a large number of 

 the older varieties were grown. These 

 have now been dropped from the trials, 

 which explains in large measure the 

 smaller number of varieties grown dur- 

 ing the last season. Each year careful 

 and complete notes have been taken of 

 all the varieties, which give us, in the 

 case of those varieties grown for com- 

 parative purposes, a record of the be- 

 havior of varieties in different seasons. 

 In the case of the novelties, however, 

 the most of them have only been grown 

 one season. 



[Concladed on ptn 78.] 



ill 



f>n!l. f"" the sweet pea, for, as it be- 



I'lint n **'* leguminossB family of 



siiiiii f- °^ which are capable of as- 



j aiing the free nitrogen of the at- 



tntoo ^** ^^ unnatural to feed it ni- 



' '■^s, as by so doing the nitrogen-gath- 





Flag in Sweet Peas, by Routledge Seed & Floral Co , Portland, Ore. 



