IMPROVEMENT AMONGST PEAS. 



39 



alone may eventually survive, for it can hardly be expected that 

 more than a good percentage will reach that enviable position, 

 as in every new introduction, however sanguine its foster-parent 

 may be, the public test will frequently bring to light some un- 

 looked-for weakness, rendering it only partially fitted, or totally 

 unfitted, for its intended position. 



When, therefore, we consider the advances made, the nume- 

 rous requirements for improved varieties adapted for particular 

 purposes, soils and seasons, and the loss by natural elimination, 

 one improved variety soon becoming displaced by a better, I 

 think Pea-raisers have done only what was necessary to keep 

 pace with the times ; they have achieved many advances, and have 

 in the numerous cross-fertilisations laid the foundations for still 

 greater improvements, but there is scope for new work in the 

 direction of greater hardiness or improved constitution and fertility. 

 The gain in large well-filled pods has sometimes been the subject 

 of ridicule, but where Peas are grown by the acre, and the produce 

 reaches several hundreds of bushels, Id. or 2d. per bushel saved 

 in gathering may often represent an average rent of the land, and 

 the time saved in shelling the larger-podded Peas is also of some 

 value. The advance, therefore, in the size of pod has been con- 

 sequently a material improvement ; gain in earliness is also well 

 appreciated both by the consumer and the grower ; to the former 

 a few days gained often represents by no means a trifling profit, 

 it may double or treble the value of the crop. I maintain, there- 

 fore, that we have secured during the past quarter of a century 

 many important and material improvements in our favourite 

 vegetable — the Pea. But we have yet room for new varieties, 

 especially in the production of good hardy Market Peas, with 

 large handsome deep-green pods, medium short-jointed straw, 

 and producing freely at each joint from the ground upwards ; and 

 for market purposes it is essential that the pods should be of 

 a deep-green colour, for however good the quality may be, the 

 higher-coloured sorts will always command a higher price. The 

 producer of such a Pea would not only benefit himself and the 

 consumer, but if he can add a hundred, or even fifty, bushels 

 of green pods per acre to the present yield, he may put into the 

 pockets of the grower an additional £5 or more per acre, and at 

 the same time do something towards counteracting the present 

 depreciation of the land. 



