40 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



For other reasons besides those I have mentioned, the labours 

 of the grower and selector ought never to cease, for the character 

 of precocity in the Pea gradually becomes reduced. If all the 

 advances in earliness claimed during the past twenty-five years 

 were added together, each new early variety generally aspiring to 

 be from seven to fourteen days ahead of all its compeers and 

 predecessors, early Peas would now come in with the new year ; 

 but, in fact, these allegations are not altogether wide of the truths 

 for those who grow early Peas largely will probably have noticed 

 that certain portions of the stock ripen off before the bulk, and 

 shell out and are lost before the crop can be harvested, and this 

 process being frequently repeated the stock ultimately loses con- 

 siderably in earliness. Similar loss also arises from the attacks of 

 birds, mice, &c, on the earliest pods; and again, when early Peas 

 are gathered green, the first gatherings include most of the 

 earliest to ripen, and the remanent, consisting of the later, is often 

 saved for seed. In reality, therefore, there is ground for the 

 claim of extra earliness, the new foundling being in advance to 

 some extent of the old stock or sort, which has not been carefully 

 preserved or selected. This loss is a constant one, and has to be 

 met either by the selector or cross-breeder. A similar pro- 

 cess also goes on with regard to the height of Peas ; the dwarfer 

 plants get lost or left in harvesting, and ultimately the stock con- 

 sists of its longer- strawed portions only. We must therefore 

 ever be watchful and on the move in Order to counteract these 

 persistent tendencies to deterioration of our existing stocks of 

 Peas. 



Discussion. 



Mr. A. W. Lemaitre said he was an amateur grower of 

 Peas, and had -never succeeded in buying Peas which kept to 

 the advertised height. He thought seedsmen should state in 

 their catalogues the nature of the soil in which the different 

 kinds of Peas should be sown. 



Mr. Dunn said that we had had many good Peas introduced 

 during the last quarter of a century, but he did not think there 

 were any new Peas which yielded earlier or later than formerly* 

 The Ne Plus Ultra was still unequalled. For practical purposes 

 there were four classes into which Peas could be divided : — 

 (a) first early Pea ; (b) second early Pea ; (c) main crop ; 

 {d) late Pea. 



