V* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1087 
Green Peas in Madison County, New York 
P RICE FLUCTUATIONS.—“Green peas $4 bushel. 
Ship more same kind.’’ This telegram, received 
yesterday (August 15), gives the state of the green 
pea market at the present writing. Green peas are 
source, and the few growers throughout Madison 
County. N. Y., picking at present are realizing a 
handsome profit. Just a month ago green peas were 
a di-ug on the New York market, whole carloads 
selling for 75 cents a bushel.-or just about half the 
cost of production and marketing. To find the rea¬ 
son for this sudden change in price within a month 
we must go back to the general production of green 
peas. The first peas sold on our large city markets 
come from Florida and California. As these ship¬ 
ments decrease the growing areas move northward 
and eastward, and the Maryland. Delaware and New 
Jersey crop comes into the market. Along with the 
New Jersey peas the Long Island shipments are 
made, and as these decline (about June 15) tbe Erie 
County growers begin to harvest their crop. Madi- 
the market but for the weather conditions, which 
ripened the Telephone peas sown at an interval of 
a week or so apart all at the same time, and brought 
them on the market with the lagging end of the 
Buffalo peas. The situation was very similar to the 
string beau shipments from the South about the 
first of June. So many cars of beans reached New 
York that sales were almost impossible. Five-peck 
hampers sold at 10 cents apiece, and some ears were 
dumped or given away and charges tacked onto the 
growers without a cent of return. The middle of 
July saw 84 carloads of green peas in New York in 
a single day, when about 10 cars will make the 
market groggy. Tbe natural result followed, and 
the price dropped to 75 cents and $1, and some 
Madison County growers forwarded express charges 
as well as paying for their baskets and picking at 
this end. Did the price drop to the consumer? No. 
The writer was in New York during the month of 
June looking over the marketing situation, and with 
for the plant without the addition of more potash. 
TIIE SEED PROBLEM is still one of the big 
question.-- in pea growing. Several fields of excel¬ 
lent Telephone peas examined by tbe writer this 
season contained just enough off-type peas to spoil 
the package. This problem is discussed in Farmers’ 
Bulletin 1253, “Seed Peas for the Canner,” and 
though written primarily for the canning crop 
grower and about Alaska peas, the operations are 
the same as for the green peas. Free copies may 
be obtained by addressing the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington. Fig. 409 shows English 
varieties of peas being tested by one of tbe large 
seed firms in New York State. Some very promising 
varieties are being tested here, and especially in the 
Buffalo section they are meeting with favor. About 
90 per cent of the peas grown in this section are 
dark pod Telephones or late peas, the remaining 10 
per cent being Thomas Laxton and Grad us or early 
peas. The 10 per cent early peas are harvested early 
. 
-- '■-’x <' AT-. 
>i var u •*, 
This picture was printed some years ago and there have been calls for reprinting. It tells its own story, and its moral is even more clear now thau when it was first 
printed. Many an agent pf “fake" goods has brought his eloquent story to an abrupt ending when that sign has been pointed out to him. Here is a watch-dog always on 
duty, never sleeping, without expense— and never spreading hydrophobia, except the harmless kind—among quacks and fakers. 
son County shipments generally begin during the 
height of the Buffalo shipping season, and increase 
its these shipments dwindle away. Green peas re¬ 
quire a cool climate ami plenty of rainfall, and it is 
in the above named sections that these conditions 
are found during the respective shipping seasons. 
CONDITIONS LAST YEAR.— Last year (1921) 
the Madison County season was ideal for pea grow¬ 
ing, and due to drought in other sections the bumper 
crop was sold at abnormally high prices. During 
the early part of the present shipping season there 
was an over-abundance of moisture in this section 
and the naturally poor quality of peas, while in the 
Buffalo section conditions were ideal and an excel¬ 
lent product was marketed. One could readily see 
through a careful study of the amount of seed pur¬ 
chased this Spring that there would be a very large 
acreage planted to peas. The large growers or 
specialists planted the same amount as usual, but 
many new growers planted from five to 10 acres, 
hence there was an increase of a little over one- 
fourtli in the acreage. 
SURPLUS AND LOW PRICES—This would 
probably have been absorbed to a large exteut on 
peas selliug at $3 a bushel at the commission houses, 
directly across the street at a stall one could buy 
peas by the quart at 25 and 30 cents, or $S to $9.60 
a bushel. This seemed to be the normal profit for 
carrying the basket across the street and selling by 
the quart. However, when the market is flooded 
and the farmers’ product sells for a dollar, the price 
across the road drops to 20 cents a quart, or only 
$0.40 a bushel. As the Hope Farm man says, there 
is a chance for improvement somewhere. 
PLANTING AND CULTIVATION.—The green 
pea crop in this section is sown in rows and culti¬ 
vated much like cabbage. Many growers cultivate 
once a week, and this practice certainly pays. The 
more often the crop is worked, the better the product, 
because of the large amount of moisture required 
by tbe plants. The pea crop also requires an alka¬ 
line soil, and this type of soil is abundant iu Madi¬ 
son County, for practically all of this section is 
underlaid with lime rock. The only other fertilizer 
given directly to the pea crop besides lime rock is 
acid phosphate, applied at the rate of 200 lbs. per 
acre. Potash is needed, but where the previous crop 
has been manured enough of this element remains 
in July and come on the market at the same time 
as the Buffalo peas. 
PEA PICKING is an event looked forward to by 
young and old. As one looks over the field he sees 
al! ages, from 10-year-old boys and girls to grand¬ 
parents. (See Fig. 470). In the Morrisville section 
the great majority are home pickers; that is, people 
who live iu the immediate neighborhood. These 
pickers are called for by the grower, usually in an 
auto, and are brought home again at night. Iu 
other sections foreign labor is imported from the 
cities for pea picking, a grower sowing his peas so 
as to have a succession, or joining with bis neigh¬ 
bors to do this. A house is fitted up with the barest 
necessities, and 20 or 80 Italian women with their 
children are secured to pick peas for the season. 
They will pick in any weather, no matter whether 
the peas are good or bad. and this certainly is an 
advantage, for home pickers often tiud they have 
housework to attend to when the weather is not of 
the finest and the peas are poor. This type of picker 
also takes away the necessity of traveling a number 
of miles to collect and return the pickers each day. 
The pickers are paid by cardboard slips for each 
