TIME OF SOWING 55 



to produce the finest blooms for Christmas, New Year, and 

 the early months of the year, and have a good crop for that 

 great flower selling period, Easter, and let other crops also 

 have a chance, so far as such a scheme can be practically 

 carried out. 



The very early plants, so far as we have seen, are sel- 

 dom of the highest quality and have but moderate blooms, 

 which are put upon the market at a time when many kinds 

 of flowers are abundant. Growers, too, who send in 

 flowers of inferior grade, are doing themselves, the Sweet 

 Pea, the salesman, and the public combined, an injustice. 

 Be it understood, it requires much skill and care to raise 

 the early July sown crop, except in the coolest sections of 

 the north or west, for it must be remembered that the 

 weather in August and eailier part of September is often 

 very hot. 



A good time to sow is the middle of August. Sow 

 around the 15th, perhaps a little earlier in the more norther- 

 ly sections. An August sowing, properly treated, will 

 yield an early crop of blooms for Thanksgiving, and so on 

 until after New Year. 



William Sim, Cliftondale, Mass., who is well known as 

 one of the largest growers, makes his first sowing before the 

 middle of August, from which flowers are picked about the 

 beginning of October. The second or main crop planting 

 is made about the second week of September, and the 

 third or last planting about the beginning of October. 

 Formerly, that is to say, a year or two ago, Mr. Sim at the 

 third planting favored the fancy colored varieties, which 

 were found to sell better during the Winter months. Plants 

 from the main crop, sown in September, begin to flower 

 about the second week in January, and those from the 

 third crop come in about the middle of March and hold on 



