GARDEN PEAS. 
257 
to the warehouses of the seed merchants, who employ often 
hundreds of women and girls to hand-pick the Peas; for, although 
the most perfect machines have been invented to take out small 
seeds or broken Peas, it is impossible to take out worm-eaten or 
discoloured Peas by any other than hand labour. These women 
come each autumn to the seed warehouses after the hop-picking 
ends. 
It would not be possible to arrive at any definite number of 
acres of Peas grown for seed in this country, still less of the 
acres cultivated for picking green for market; in both cases they 
would amount to many thousands of acres. 
Peas for such London markets as Covent Garden, the 
Borough, and Spitalfields are chiefly grown in Surrey, Middlesex, 
Kent, and Essex. The great aim of the market gardeners is to 
get them put on the market as early as possible, as often 12s. and 
upwards a bushel is paid for the first Peas, and in a few days 
they drop to half that price ; so one can see the necessity for 
getting early and pure stocks for cultivation. 
Enormous quantities of Peas are grown in the Evesham 
district of Worcester, and also at Selby in Yorkshire, the land in 
both districts being found particularly suitable for Pea growing, 
and these are sent to London, Manchester, and Liverpool, or, in 
fact, to any market where there is a prospect of securing the 
highest price. 
To show how certain varieties die out and are superseded by 
others, I find in 1877-8 ninety-seven varieties quoted in cata¬ 
logues ; in 1887-8 seventy only of these varieties are still quoted; 
and in 1897 only forty-six of them are found remaining; and yet 
the names of Peas are ever increasing owing to the constant 
announcement of new varieties, or shall I say old friends with 
new names? There are quoted now in English catalogues some 
625 names. I need hardly say that they may be easily reduced 
to one fourth that number, as so many are only synonyms well 
known to those who test them each year; but it is not my in¬ 
tention to apply the pruning-knife, as I should most likely bring 
about my head a hornet’s nest of protests from those who do 
not agree with me. I may say that we have nearly 700 rows 
of Peas for comparison this season in our own trial grounds in 
Essex. 
Within the last fifteen years quite a new industry has sprung 
