The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1469 
The Green Pea Crop in Madison County 
L ITTLE rROFIT THIS SEASON.—“As fre¬ 
quently happens when an easily grown farm 
crop makes profitable returns for a period, produc¬ 
tion is usually overdone. Few growers of green 
peas thus far this season have made any profit on 
their shipments.” The preceding statement, taken 
from the Madison County Leader, expresses in brief 
the situation with the green pea crop. Last season, 
as described through these columns, the green pea 
growers had the most successful season ever known, 
profits running as high as $550 an acre, and their 
brother farmers growing peas for the canneries did 
not receive cost of production for their 
crops. But the worm has turned with 
vengeance. After the harvest of 1019 
the farmers of Western New York, un¬ 
der their Farm Bureau leaders, formed 
the New York State Canning Crops 
Association, Inc., and this season the 
growers dealt with the canners collect¬ 
ively, setting their own prices, which 
give cost plus a profit, as in other lines 
of endeavor. Prof. IT. C. Thompson, 
head of the vegetable gardening de¬ 
partment of the New York State Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture, said that last sea¬ 
son the farmer received three cents for 
the peas that the consumer now buys 
for from 20 to 25 cents a can. In 
other words, out of every dollar the 
farmer got the magnificent sum of 15 
cents. The logical result was a com¬ 
bine of (lie growers and an advance of 
$20 a ton on the price of canning peas. 
SEED SCARCITY.—Not so with the 
green pea growers. Seed was scarce, 
due to a crop failure throughout the 
Middle Western States, where the 
major portion of the pea seed is grown, 
and there was a correspondingly 
higher price for . seed. The great 
scarcity came with the late varieties, 
especially of Telephone peas. Because 
of this shortage more airly peas were 
planted, and the market has been 
swamped with green peas up to the 
present (August 20). T>ue to the dry 
weather of the past two weeks the 
shipments have dwindled, so that the 
demand and supply are nearer equal, 
with a correspondingly higher price 
per bushel. 
HIGHER COSTS.—The cost of grow¬ 
ing a bushel of peas is much higher 
this year, as shown through a study of 
the various items listed: 
1919 
Seed . $8.00-$10.00 bu. 
Fertilizer (phos.). 28.00- 30.00 ton 
Baskets. .17 ea. 
Picking . .30 bu. 
Express-cartage . .27 
Commission . 10% 
1920 
Reed .$12.00-$15.00 bu. 
Fertilizers (phos.). 33.00- 35.00 ton 
Baskets . .30 ea. 
Picking . .40 bu. 
Express-cartage . .27 
Commission . 10% 
ADVANCE IN PRICE 
Seed ..!.$5.00 bu. 
Fertilizer (phos.). 5.00 ton 
Baskets.13 ea. 
Picking .10 bu. 
Express-cartage .. 
Commission .. 
The total cost of growing and har¬ 
vesting an average acre (100 bushels) 
this year is $125, or just $50 more than 
the cost one year ago. This does not 
include labor in the form of cultivat¬ 
ing or seeding, and when peas bring 
but $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel the 
farmer has little chance for rejoicing. 
Peas have not given as large returns 
per acre as last season, due to the dry 
weather. This crop requires a cool, 
moist climate, and we generally have 
it and to spare in this section. But 
this season has been an exception, and 
the rain clouds did not appear when 
needed, hence 150-bushel yields are 
very rare, while they were very com¬ 
mon a year ago. 
PICKING.—The green pea crop re¬ 
quires a great deal' of labor at picking time, and in 
the Spring this seemed the greatest problem. The 
picking is done by women, boys and girls, who are 
paid for the number of bushels picked. In this 
section of the pea country one grower hires as many 
pickers as possible for the season and contracts with 
the neighboring growers to supply help to them at 
the proper time. The pickers are called for each 
morning by a large bus or truck and distributed 
throughout the various lields. Each picker takes a 
row, pulls the vines and places the pods in a box. 
(See Fig. 465.) When a half bushel is picked the 
Harvesting a Field of Peas. Fig. .{05 
A Field of Potatoes From High Quality Seed. Fig. J/66 
pods are emptied into a basket and the picker re¬ 
ceives a small ticket which will be redeemed by the 
contractor at any time. This year 40 cents a bushel 
was paid, and with good picking some women aver¬ 
aged $5 and $0 a day. The record for this section 
was 18 bushels in 10 hours, picked by a woman. In 
two places in the county—Morrisville and Poolville— 
city girls were imported to aid in harvesting the 
crop. These farmerettes (see Fig. 464) lived with 
a chaperon in dormitories, and besides spending an 
enjoyable vaeutiou, they earned considerable pin 
money. The girls from the city were very satis¬ 
factory, and the experiment will be re¬ 
peated next season if found necessary. 
PEA APHIS.—About the first of 
August the pea aphis appears in the 
fields, and if not controlled at once it 
is likely to cause complete failure of 
the pea crop. This pest spends the 
early part of the season on the clover 
crop. After the clover is cut it appears 
on the growing tips of the late peas. 
This usually occurs the last of July. 
If sprayed at this time under high 
pressure with Black Leaf 40 (nicotine 
extract) the pest can be controlled, but 
if the peas are left until the insect 
causes the pea leaves to wrinkle and 
fold, it is a hopeless task to attempt 
to control them. The aphids have not 
been as bad this season as they were 
in 1919. when during our survey we 
found field after field where the crop 
was a total failure. 
SHIPPING THE CROP.—The peas 
from this section are shipped by ex¬ 
press each day through an incorporated 
body of farmers, who hire a competent 
manager to keep in constant touch with 
the markets. Mr. John Taylor, the 
manager, has a private wire at his 
disposal each morning, and if he finds 
the New York market heavy with peas 
the cars are shifted to Boston or Phila¬ 
delphia and Baltimore. The members 
of the association need not ship 
through the association unless they de¬ 
sire, but peas shipped through the 
manager are assessed a small amount 
to cover the running expenses. Last 
season this amounted to three cents 
per bushel. During the past week 
prices have risen to over $3 a bushel, 
and this gives the grower a good in¬ 
come. provided he has an average 
yield. Last year 53.000 bushels of 
green peas were billed from Morris¬ 
ville alone. Though figures are not 
available at present, it is claimed that 
nearly twice that amount have already 
been shipped from this station, and 
this may account for the low market 
value up to the present time. As a 
suggestion it seems that with a thriv¬ 
ing shippers’ association this same body 
could study the acreage that the larger 
cities could take care of. and by a can¬ 
vass each Spring let the members know 
whether there is twice the acreage be¬ 
ing planted that there are markets to 
Supply. T. II. TOWNSEND. 
Growers in New Jersey Studying Late Crop Seed Potatoes. Fig. .}t>7 
Results From Good and Poor Seed Potatoes. Fig. f/GS, 
Dynamite for Tree Planting 
We have had many favorable reports 
from fruit growers who have used dyna¬ 
mite for opening the holes for tree plant¬ 
ing. This is a common practice with 
many, but advice concerning the practice 
should be qualified. The Ohio Experi¬ 
ment Station has the following. Our 
own experience has been that close root 
pruning and planting in small holes gives 
us best results: 
Some orchard growers use dynamite to 
blast out the holes for trees. This is 
regarded as especially desirable only in 
soils underlaid with an impervious hard- 
pan or those in which their compactness 
makes digging slow and difficult. The 
dynamite should be used only when the 
ground is dry. When the soil is filled 
with water the explosion of the dynamite 
forms a jug-shaped cavity about the size 
of a barrel, in which soil is loose. 
When the tree is planted the settling 
of the loose soil allows the trees to drop 
much deeper than they should be set. 
