April 3, 1909. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
223 
Sweet Peas at Eckford’s Seed Farm in Essex. 
Sweet Peas and Garden Peas. 
Sckiosi’s Sead faras. 
Nobodv is worse shod than the shoe¬ 
makers wife, and no horse is worse shod 
than the blacksmith’s mare. That may 
not seem to have much connection with 
garden Peas and Sweet Peas, but the 
simile fits the case which we have in mind 
exactly with regard to farmers and seed 
growers as a rule. Their farming and 
their seed growing in the field may be 
excellent, but a hundred to one their 
garden is neglected and in a woe-begone 
state. That does not aoply to Mr. Eck- 
ford. of the world-known Henry Eckford, 
Wem, Shropshire, of Sweet Pea lame, 
who is, therefore, an exception to the 
general rule. 
Mr. John Stainer Eck¬ 
ford was for many years 
his fathers right-hand 
man in the business of 
raising Sweet Peas and 
garden Peas at Mem, 
Shropshire, so that he is 
fully alive to even - phase 
of the business, and gives 
a whole-hearted attention 
to the crossing, raising 
and selection of the best 
types, for the flower gar¬ 
den, as well as the kitchen 
garden. 
Notwithstanding the ex¬ 
cellency of the field cul¬ 
tures, we are compelled at 
this juncture to step aside 
and show that at Tilley, 
Wem, the home garden of 
Mr. Eckford, no pains are 
spared to make the private 
garden worthy of its 
owner. 
The accompanying illus¬ 
tration shows a wealth of 
floral beauty amongst the 
clumps or pillars of Sweet 
Peas, giving character to 
the other flowers with 
which the grounds are em¬ 
bellished. The pleasing 
piece of lawn is surrounded 
by flowers in profusion 
during their proper season, and those 
again are backed up with trees and 
shrubs, giving the shelter and seclusion 
which one looks, or at least hopes, for in 
a private garden. Here, in the blush of 
the season the air is redolent with the 
perfume of Sweet Peas, Stocks, Mignon¬ 
ette, and other sweet scented flowers. The 
method of supporting the Sweet Peas is 
something in the way of a novelty. 
Usually they are supported on tall Hazel 
sticks. We are also familiar with the 
device of growing them upon galvanised 
wire-netting, and, in some cases, special 
frames, on which a special kind of net¬ 
ting is fixed, have all been used for the 
support of Sweet Peas or garden 
Peas. In this particular case four 
tall corner posts are driven firmly 
into the ground, and wire-netting 
is fixed round these. The device is 
not only neat in itself, but appro¬ 
priate for the support of the Sweet 
Peas. It is one of Mr. Eckford’s 
own devices, and seeing that he has 
found it so useful in his own case, 
he is prepared to supply his cus¬ 
tomers with similar stakes. 
Not far off is another piece of 
ground or garden which, on the 
occasion of our visit, was covered 
with a splendid crop of garden 
Peas. One rarely thinks of grow¬ 
ing these in a villa garden, but 
town dwellers habitually think of 
narrow spaces and confinement. In 
the country, gardens can be ordered 
differently, and in the rural district 
at Tilley, Mr. Eckford has fully 
realised the possibilities of a home 
garden in the best sense of the 
term. Gardeners and amateurs seldom 
think of garden Peas when Wem is men¬ 
tioned, but they are really one of the 
specialities at Wem, and these fine crops 
in his home garden were varieties of his 
own raising. 
Sweet Peas. 
For some years the grounds at Wem 
were capable of growing all the Sweet 
Pea and garden Pea seed required by the 
firm, but as the fame of these Sweet Peas 
spread all over the civilised world, and 
u ere grown where the climate would per¬ 
mit. the demand for seeds exceeded the 
supply, and a wider field for the develop¬ 
ment-of the business became necessary. 
At first arrangements were made for the 
cultivation of both types of Peas in Essex, 
but this soon proved insufficient, and the 
broad acres of Althorne Lodge, Burn- 
ham-on-Crouch, Essex, were acquired. 
A large portion of the rural district of 
Essex is justly celebrated for seed raising 
Sweet Peas in Mr. J. S. Eckford’s private garden at Tilley, Wem. 
