28 



COST AND PROFITS 



and allowing for weak or imperfect germination and other 

 incidentals, 85 per cent, should produce seedlings, each 

 plant yielding another 100. At the end of 19 16 the growei 

 would have harvested 8500 seeds. Or assuming that 

 through lack of care (an unlikely contingency in the case 

 of a novelty) half the plants succumbed to drought, or aphis 

 or mildew, or some other cause, and that only 4250 seeds 

 were got, if these were sown in April, 19 17, the crop by 

 August of that year should have equaled, say, 425,000 

 seeds. Deducting fifteen per cent, failures in germination 

 the next Spring, we still obtain 361,250 plants for the crop 

 of the Summer of 19 18, the fourth year, and if only one-sixth 

 of an ounce of seed is produced by each (about" 50 seeds) 

 since the same liberal care cannot be given to each plant, 

 the result would be the huge quantity of 18,062,500 Peas. 

 But in case any one might think this too high a figure, 

 divide this total by five or even six, if you like, and there still 

 remain 3,010,416 seeds, which, at an average of 350 to the 

 ounce, makes 8315^4 ounces. At $1 to $4 an ounce whole- 

 sale (and sometimes $10 and $12 an ounce is paid) it would 

 seem that novelty raising in Sweet Peas is pretty fairly re- 

 munerative. At the same time an enormous amount of pa- 

 tient work, coupled with many disappointments, is necessary 

 before even one good new variety can be expcted, as a rule. 

 A house 130 ft. by 30 ft., with rows 120 ft. long, may 

 be planted with eight rows, 30 in. apart, or seven rows at 

 3 ft. apart, leaving a small amount of bench room all 

 around. Of course, the rows may be run transversely 

 across the house. The same amount of seed would be 

 required in any case, namely, some 15 or 16 ozs. Allowing 

 for 20 per cent, failures in germination, or even more, the 

 number of resultant plants may be estimated at roughly 

 4850. If each plant furnishes an average of two to three 



