HISTORY OF SWEET PEA BLANCHE FERRY I3I 



tendency to cultivate and improve them. Some 55 years 

 ago she procured seeds of a bright flowered plant of Painted 

 Lady, and for many years thereafter she sowed and se- 

 lected, and as her garden overlay limestone, and was of 

 very shallow soil, averaging not more than a foot in depth, 

 her strain of plants gradually became more compact. At 

 the end of 25 years the type she had been selecting was of 

 bushy form and was grown without support. W. W. Tracy, 

 Sr., of the firm of D. M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, who is now 

 superintendent of the Testing Gardens of the United States 

 Dept. of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, saw the plants, 

 and being immediately impressed with their distinctiveness 

 and merits, obtained a small stock, only about 100 seeds. 

 This was the famous Blanche Ferry, and was introduced 

 in 1889 by the firm above mentioned. It was honored by 

 having a colored plate in the firm's catalog that year. 



Six years later Messrs. Ferry introduced the Extra 

 Early Blanche Ferry, and described it in these words: 

 " The Extra Early Blanche Ferry is more dwarf, very much 

 earlier, and fully equal in all other respects to Blanche 

 Ferry. How much earlier we hardly dare say, but the most 

 competent observer who compared it with upward of 50 

 varieties, declares it is two or three weeks earlier than any 

 of them. Our careful observation convinces us that it is 

 so early and dwarf that in these respects it outclasses all 

 other Sweet Peas, and while these qualities make it in- 

 comparably the best Sweet Pea for forcing, its dwarf habit 

 and persistent blooming make it equally desirable for 

 outdoor culture." 



The House of Burpee distributed' Earliest of All in 

 1898, when it was described in the catalog of the firm as 

 " Not only the earliest to bloom in the open ground, but 

 also the most desirable for forcing under glass for Winter 



