1088 
<Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
September 9, 1922 
bushel, each being redeemable in cash from the 
grower, or through the use of cards the size of ship¬ 
ping tags, which are punched by the yard boss for 
each bushel picked. These latter cards usually have 
the grower’s name printed on and a number of 
squares or numbers representing bushels. The latter 
system seems admirably suited to this particular 
problem. Fig. 46S shows one of the Italian pickers 
on Telephone peas. !She picks around 10 bushels a 
day at 25 cents a bushel, and following pea picking 
she will work in the potato fields with her family 
until late in the Fall. Some growers are offering 
this type of worker a home with a small parcel of 
land in order to get them to work the entire season. 
In Madison County the peas are picked directly into 
the baskets in which they go to market. This of 
course makes the shortest possible handling for a 
perishable product, but where pickers are careless 
it. also means that vines, hard pods or ‘•whites” and 
immature pods or "slabs” will creep in, and the 
result is a lower price for the product. 
VARIOUS METHODS.—Mr. Scliillroth. manager 
of the Erie County Vegetable Growers, tolls me that 
in the Buffalo section the peas are picked into sacks 
by the Italian laborers and taken to a central pack¬ 
ing shed, where a grading process is gone through 
and the peas packed uniformly. In this case the 
poor quality peas are graded less at the start, while 
in Madison County the peas sell for less on the mar¬ 
ket. I have talked with commission men, and some 
say they would rather have Madison County peas 
ungraded, because they are handled less, while 
others say they want Buffalo pens, because they are 
uniform. It is a question as to which is the best 
method, but there is no question that greater care 
should be exercised by the grower in packing peas 
in the held and as good pack as possible he secured. 
This would mean a distinct advance in price to the 
grower concerned. I know of two prominent growers 
who pack an exceptionally good basket, and they 
always receive the top price for their product. One 
of the commission men told me that a certain 
grower’s product was always sold “before it was 
shipped.” simply because they knew the pack was 
dependable. The Ex-ie County growers have one 
advantage over the local growers in that each day’s 
returns are pooled. The local associations do not do 
this. The advantage comes in that the manager can 
ship to any market, and no undue expense comes to 
any grower. For instance, a car sold in New York 
and one sold in Washington may bring tlie same 
price, but the expense of shipping to Washington is 
twice as great. Whose peas shall the manager ship 
to Washington? Why, the other fellow’s, of course, 
and the other fellow says to ship yours. When the 
day’s returns are pooled it does not matter whoso 
peas go to the various markets, while those 
sent individually at a greater expense generally 
bring a howl of "favoritism” from the grower. Fig. 
471 shows a basket being packed in the field. It is 
necessary to heap the baskets in order to have them 
reach the market in a satisfactory condition. 
Growers who simply fill the baskets level full re¬ 
ceive less on the market, for there is a shrinkage 
and the baskets look slack at the other end. The 
writer spent the present season in the pea fields 
working with one of the local associations. Slack 
baskets were common and covers were not fastened 
securely, so peas easily spilled out. In fact, though 
a grower put out an excellent product, very few 
seemed to care how slipshod it was sent to market. 
Before the season was half over the majority of the 
shippers filled their baskets full, clamped the han¬ 
dles down so the cover and half the contents could 
not be removed, and wired on the covers so that peas 
would not spill out. The results showed in the re¬ 
turns secured, and the commission men backed this 
to the limit. 
CARTING AND SHIPPING.—The flivver is in¬ 
dispensable in the pea field, as shown in Fig. 472. 
Baskets are carried to the ears, pickers are brought 
to the fields, empty baskets are drawn to the field 
and all other odd jobs performed with the useful Liz. 
Thei*e is one other thing indispensable in the pea 
field, and that is the big milk can filled with ice and 
water. This familiar object appears somewhere in 
the scenery at every pea field. One of the commis¬ 
sion men insisted on refrigerater ears this year. 
Practically all of the Buffalo shipments are made 
in this type of car and some shipments from Madison 
County. The trip by freight requires 24 hours or 
longer, while express shipments are made in 12 
hours. I have come to the conclusion that there is 
not a great deal of difference as far as the condition 
of the peas is concerned. The receipts were almost 
identical for peas sent in refrigerator ears as those 
sent by express. The only advantage would he over 
Sunday, where a car lies on the tracks an extra 
day, and in this ease refrigerator cars are an 
advantage. 
Fig. 475 shows the baskets ready for market just 
before they were taken to the express car. The 
pickers can be seen in the distance. It is good prac¬ 
tice to cover such baskets with old vines to keep off 
the sun’s rays. One grower keeps a hay rack in the 
field over which a canvas is stretched on a frame, 
and as soon as the baskets are filled they are placed 
in the shade. Growers are beginning to realize that 
these little helps give them just that much more re¬ 
turn ou their investment and that it pays. The big 
majority of the green peas go to the New York mar¬ 
ket. though a few are shipped to Boston. Philadel¬ 
phia, Pittsburg. Baltimore and Washington. The 
New York market is much the best, for any surplus 
is absorbed at a very small drop in price. After the 
Philadelphia market lias its quota of four or five 
cars the price drops rapidly, for a surplus is hard 
to absorb, and the same is true of the Washington 
market, as some growers have found to their sor¬ 
row. This was noticeable a few weeks ago when 
peas were bringing a trifle more in Philadelphia 
One of the liest Pickets. Fig. -'/(iS 
than in New York. Several independent growers 
organized cars and shipped them to Philadelphia to 
take advantage of the high price. Too many thought 
of the same thing at the same time, however, for 
eight ears arrived the same day, and some sold for 
as low as 75 cents a bushel. 
AFTER CROPS.—The pea growers who depend 
for their living on cash crops plow the land imme¬ 
diately after picking and sow either buckwheat or 
rye as a cover crop. Occasionally the buckwheat is 
harvested, but more often it is turned under for 
green manure. A very few growers try to get a crop 
of cabbage off tlie ground after early peas, but it 
is taking quite a chance unless the season is fairly 
wet. Many of the dairy farmers have a weakness 
of letting the weeds grow after pea picking, and the 
two or three months the weeds hold sway undis¬ 
turbed seeds the home farm and probably many of 
its neighbors. This seems like a very poor practice 
to follow, but at this season one can see field after 
field of weeds 2 or 3 ft. high where tlie pea crop 
has been removed. 
THE QUESTION OF INOCULATION lias been 
raised by many interested growers, and a few are 
trying out the bacteria cultures. These bacteria, 
which live on the roots of the various legumes, are 
added to the soil to get a better growth. The writer 
has examined a number of inoculated fields this 
season and has failed to find any materia] difference 
in the growth, probably because the soil is pretty 
well inoculated from previous sowings of peas. 
MARKETING SHELLED PEAS.—Some experi¬ 
ments with shelled peas have been carried on this 
year, and in the future perhaps the consumer "ill 
buy peas at the corner store without the pods. There 
is one stall at Washington Market in New \ T ork at 
the present time where shelled peas can be pur¬ 
chased by tlie pint and quart. If this method of 
selling peas proves feasible the pea picker will be¬ 
come a memory of the past, for all peas will then be 
shelled in a vinery such as used for shelling can¬ 
ning peas. A great saving is made in shipping in 
that the shelled peas take up but one-eighth the 
space occupied by the pods. The greatest problem at 
present seems to be tlie container in which to ship. 
Closed containers used in (lie experiments draw the 
moisture from the peas and cause mildew to form. 
Now half-bushel covered baskets are being used with 
pint baskets inside containing the peas. Several 
large restaurants are watching the experiments with 
interest, for they say they cannot afford to buy peas 
in the pod because of labor necessary in shelling 
them, and they could use such a product received 
in finished form. 
COST OF PRODUCTION.—The writer made a 
survey of over 100 farms to find the cost of produc¬ 
ing peas. With an average yield of 150 bushels per 
acre the cost of growing peas was found to he about 
.$50, and the cost of marketing just $1 a bushel, or 
the total cost of growing a bushel of peas is nearly 
$1.50. The growing costs included rent of land, 
plowing, harrowing, fertilizer and cultivating, and 
the marketing included cost of baskets, picking, 
express, commission and hauling to station. Thus 
the growers receiving $3 and $4 a bushel are making 
aii excellent profit, and those securing 75 cents might 
better have plowed their crop under for the green 
manure benefit. Yields this year were anywhere 
from 30 bushels per acre for early peas up to around 
200 bushels for Telephones. Last season the writer 
found an average of 70 bushels for early peas and 
14S bushels for Telephones. Comparing the yields 
for the past five years this is very nearly a true 
average. 
PLANT LICE have been abundant this season in 
this section, as well as tlie other growing sections. 
Experiments with nicotine sulphate dust have been 
tiled in an attempt to control the pest. Results 
were satisfactory as far as control was concerned, 
but the product used was very expensive, and it 
would only pay to use it when the market is fairly 
high. The dust was applied with a hand duster, a 
little less than two acres an hour being covered. 
About three applications were made. In time dust¬ 
ing will probably become quite common in control¬ 
ling the pea aphis. 
CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING.—The last prob¬ 
lem in marketing Madison County peas, and perhaps 
the largest, is the co-operative marketing associa¬ 
tions. and here 1 tread on a delicate subject. There 
are three at present in the one county, and each is 
having a wholesome influence on the others by mak¬ 
ing the others pack a better hamper and ship more 
efficiently. However one association has no con¬ 
nection with another, and shipping is haphazard. 
All may ship to the same market, flooding it, or all 
may neglect the same market. The situation is de¬ 
scribed by our Hope Farm man under the title 
"Organization” in his book “Hope Farm Notes.” 
Until each grower can trust bis neighbor the maxi¬ 
mum price for peas will not he received by all. From 
a five years’ study of the green pea marketing in 
Madison County the writer has drawn the following 
conclusions: 1. In a specialized industry, limited 
by climate and soil to a certain section, there should 
be one central marketing association, 2. The maxi¬ 
mum acreage that can he sold should be decided on 
and the time of planting arranged, so that a uniform 
supply should go on the market throughout the sea¬ 
son. Weather conditions will change this so that it 
cannot be done exactly, but it will come true approx¬ 
imately. 3. Growers should sign up to grow a cer¬ 
tain acreage and plant the seed at a specified time. 
4. Seed should be purchased by the manager, as is 
done so satisfactorily in the Buffalo section. A uni¬ 
form pack supervised by the association should he 
made, and finally, the product should be pooled each 
day, as the single manager controls the full supply 
and can send just enough to each market to hold 
the price. Here is an ideal place for a successful 
farmers’ co-operative. Will it come? And when? 
The answer is in the Hope Farm man’s “Organiza¬ 
tion.” T. H. TOWNSEND. 
Danger in Late Cultivation of Corn 
O N pnge 001 Burton Goon has an article on late 
cultivation that is good, yet I believe that he 
should have gone more into details, as I have seen 
serious damage caused by late cultivation, I am an 
advocate of late cultivation. By this I mean con¬ 
tinuous cultivation, beginning as soon as corn is up, 
and continuing till .ears are set and silked out. I 
believe that I make more bushels the last, cultivation, 
which is just after ears are set. than r make at any 
other one working. Yet observation tells me that 
the majority of farmers who cultivate this late do 
