aj/»c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
551 
Sweet pea growiiis uiuler glass has 
made wonderful strides in the last few 
years, due primarily to the many new 
and beautiful varieties of orchid-flower¬ 
ing peas, select('d and adapted to early 
flowering. These large peas, many of 
which have three and four flowers per 
stem, with stems 111 to IS inches long, 
have temporarily taken the fancy of the 
public. Just how long it will bo until 
they lose their popularity, no one can 
say. 'NMien.we first started in the green¬ 
house business, about 20 years ago, we 
tried sweet peas. The varieties we had 
at that time would not bloom before 
April, regardless of the time when the 
seed was sown. That I dirl not know at 
that tiiiie, and asked our commis-sion man 
if it would not bo a go<id thing to have 
peas for Christmas. He assured me that 
there would be no sale for them before 
Spring, even though we could get them 
to bloom before that time. Conditions 
are certainly reversed now when it Is 
impossible to get enough blooms of sweet 
peas at Christmas. 
The varieties are principally liose 
Queen, a beautiful light ])ink, white 
orchid. Yarrawa and pink and white 
orchid, with many other shatles of rose 
and lavender. The seed of nmst of these 
varieties at present is .“^20 to .$.■»(> per 
pound, while the new varieties bring 
$1."> per ounce. The cause of the im¬ 
possibility of producing enough to fill the 
demand at Christmas is due to climatic 
conditions. If the sun is not shining for 
a consecutive period of four (»r five days, 
almost all the buds-forming on the vines 
will drop off. These cloudy periods are 
so fretiuent during tln^ short d.ays of 
November, December and .laniiary. that 
many large growers of sweet peas have 
discontinued imaking .an effort to have 
peas in bloom in midwinter. T have fre¬ 
quently seen vines 1<» to 12 feet high 
that had not iirodiiced any blooms, but 
were filled with stems from which the 
btids had dropped. 
Around Kennet Square in Che.ster 
Co., I’a., sweet peas are grown by the 
acre, and I do not know of .any grower 
who made an effort to get a midwinter 
crop this .season. It seems to me that 
the Chester County growers jealou.sly 
watch their neighbor’s success, and meth¬ 
ods, and then one and all do the same 
thing. This sheei)-like method of imi¬ 
tation is an e-vcellent thing, where the 
flock has a few able leaders, and the 
fact that these growers have a few such 
leaders is clearly demonstrated by the ‘ 
success of the rank and file. 
Ttieh soil is usually recommended for 
sweet p<‘as, one writer recently advocat¬ 
ing 20 loads of manure to a house 
40x150 feet in the horticultural • trade 
jcturnals. I have .seen a Chester County 
grower who has shi|>ped a quarter of a 
million peas in one wetde, apidy j)ulver- 
ized sheep manure to the .soil as a mulch 
towards Spring, over ^-inch thick on 
the entire surface of the beds. This soil 
had a large quantity of manure incor¬ 
porated before .seed was sown. I’eas are 
almost univcrsall.v grown on solid beds; 
For a midwinter crop the seed is .sown 
from August 1 to September 15. though 
most of the seed is sown October 1 to 
November 1, the advantage of the later 
sowing being usually better weather 
conditions, which result in the vines 
blooming when four to five feet high, in¬ 
stead of 10 to 12 feet. J'he r.ancaster 
County growers space the mws three 
feet apart, while the (^hester ('ount.v 
growers who were to space .an.v row less 
than five feet from any other row would 
doubtless fear ostracism, or something 
worse, as they all must be that distance 
in that section. Each group argues that 
his method is the only one that can pos¬ 
sibly be used to grow sweet peas 
profitabl.v, and as far as I know, neither 
group h:is experimented and kept records 
of dilTerent spacings in one house, so 
their arguments on each side resolve 
themselves into mere guesswork, which 
should suffice as long as all parties are 
satisfied, and making any profit, and are 
happy over results. There is not .so 
much diversity of opinion as to the dis¬ 
tance of the plants in the row, sis inches 
being the usual spacing. 
All white seed should he soaked in 
water eight to 10 hours, then closely 
Covered until short sprouts api>ear. The 
other varieties can be sown directly in 
thi‘ beds and covered one-half to one 
inch in depth. Water carefully and 
frequently, to guard against the soil dry¬ 
ing out. but do not over-water. Soggy 
soil will rot the seed, and soon cause the 
young plants to rot off. .Soon as the 
seed is germinated, allow the .soil to be¬ 
come quite dry between each application 
of water. 
Supports should be in place as soon 
as peas are several inches high. We 
idacc a heavy post at each end of the 
row. and space roofing lath 20 feet 
apart, one opposite the other, spaced six 
inches apart; No. IS wire is stretched 
one each side of the row and stapled to 
the upright lath. These wires are spaced 
about six inches apart vertically, and 
occa.sionally a light cotton twine is laced 
diagonally from one to the other to sup¬ 
port the vines from falling down. .Sup¬ 
porting is important if straight .stems 
are desired. 
Some growers cut the flowers, while 
others pull them from the vine. Unless 
you have the knack of pulling them out 
without injuring the vine, better use 
small scissors; 25 flowers are usually 
placed in a bunch. 
fl'lie sweet pea has many in.scet and 
fungus enemies. The worst is the green 
aphis. A few of these insects on the 
vines at any time of the growth per- 
uuiuently injures tl'.e vine, even chang¬ 
ing the color of the flower. Fumigation 
with nicotine paper, or tobacco stems is 
the only remedy. Tobacco stems should 
not be used after the vines start bloom¬ 
ing. lied spider is another troublesome 
jiest. .ajul can only be controlled by 
spraying with water under pressure. 
Sweet ]>eas ‘are difficult to start-earlier 
than September on account of several 
fungus diseases attacking the stems and 
roots. ^^'e have had over half of our 
plants to damp olf the past season when 
two to six inches high. After this had 
occurred twice we sowed seed in pots, and 
transplanted to get an even stand. As 
soon as the weather becomes cooler, le.ss 
difficulty is encountered. During 
damp, cloudy weather mildew is ofttimes 
trouble.some. This can be held in check 
by a light application of .sulphur to the 
heating pipes or by spraying the vines 
with some sulphur preparation. Sulphur 
(in steam pipes will bleach the color out 
of any flowers that may be open 
while the fumes 
I’ennsylvania. 
are in the house. 
EL^r^:It .T. WEAVER. 
Alfalfa and Quack Grass 
I read with a good deal of interest the 
article of II. C. Collins. Lew'is County. N. 
1'., page 405, regarding his plans of 
smothering out quack grass with Alfalfa. 
I sincerely hope that he will succeed and, 
that his efforts will result in a complete 
success. I doubt, however, if he will find 
that the Alfalfa will comiiletely eradicate 
the quack grass. The preliminary culti¬ 
vation of the field undoubtedly killed out a 
good de.al of the quack grass before the 
Alfalfa was planted, but I predict that 
Mr. Collins will find here and there a 
patch of quack grass -which -will just begin 
to head out about the time of first cut¬ 
ting of the Alfalfa. The Alfalfa will hold 
these little patches in check, but as for 
smothering them out. I fear that the 
(piack will survive the rapid gro-wth of tim 
Alfalfa. 
Canada thistles are no match for a good 
sland of Alfalfa. In three years’ time 
they will be completely killed out, pro¬ 
vided a good stand of Alfalfa has b(*en ob¬ 
tained, but w’ith the aggr(‘ssive quack 
grass these results do not always obtain. 
I hope Collins -will let the readers of 
The II. N.-Y. know of his results as he 
(d)serves them this Summer. 
IVisconsin. L. E. GBABER. 
u 
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T; 
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