10 INTRODUCTION 



year is, therefore, 75c. to $1.10. The best Spencer Sweet 

 Peas fetch the higher rates until the month of May. 



In New York the cheaper grades have sold at from 15c. 

 to 60c. per dozen bunches of 12 sprays each from January 

 to July, and 85c. to $1.60 for the best flowers during Feb- 

 ruary to the middle of May. 



In Boston the average from December to June is 40c. 

 to $1.25; and in Philadelphia, from the beginning of De- 

 cember to the end of March, inclusive, the average whole- 

 sale returns are 50c. to $1.20 per hundred sprays. 



A serious attempt has been made in the chapter on 

 cultivation to impress the need of thoroughness and the 

 best care in the whole treatment of the Sweet Pea crop. 

 Now that selections are being made by the larger growers, 

 and when seeds of novelties are being sold at the rate of 

 25 seeds for $1.50, or 6c. apiece, and when even 25c. per 

 seed has been declined by some raisers of new seedlings, it 

 behooves the grower to look upon the Winter Sweet Pea 

 with the utmost respect. The time has come when its 

 cultivation is viewed from a more scientific basis altogether. 

 It must rise to a higher place in the estimation of growers 

 in general, for it will be found, we imagine, that the best 

 Spencer Peas require as much watchfulness and skill to 

 produce, as good class Roses and Carnations. The man 

 who gets that fact stamped upon his mind is the man who 

 is likely to succeed the best. 



The Sweet Pea has not yet by any means reached the 

 climax of its perfection. Better varieties are sure to arise 

 year by year. By and by we shall expect to see larger, 

 better frilled, and even more beautiful color combinations, 

 and to have the flowers more closely arranged on the spike. 



A speaker at the conference of the American Sweet 

 Pea Society in New York in June, 1914, asked the question: 



