Crops of Quality for the Home 
Garden 
VARIOUS TYPES OF GARDEN PEAS AND METHODS OF 
GROWING THEM WHICH YIELD THE BEST RESULTS— 
SOILS, PLANTING AND GENERAL CARE 
BY D. R. Edson 
Editor's Note: We hare consistently endeavored to emphasize the fact that the one 
unanswerable argument for the home garden is table quality. You may or you may not 
be able to grow things cheaper than you can buy them—most people can. But the fact 
that admits of no questioning is that by growing your own vegetables you can hare them 
better. Only so can you hare them absolutely fresh; only so can you make sure of haring 
-varieties that have been selected solely for table quality. In this series of articles the most 
important of the garden’s products will be discussed from the standpoint of quality. Special 
points of culture also will be suggested, with a view of obtaining not only prime quality 
but a continuity of crop over the longest possible season for each kind of vegetable. 
F EW vegetables are so deli¬ 
cious as fresh green peas — 
when they are just right. But 
notwithstanding their universal 
use they are one of the most difficult of vegetables to get in just 
the right condition for the table. You know from your own 
experience what a world of difference there is between the really 
fresh peas and those others that look almost the same but are a 
little tough and have a perceptible “skin" and a faintly bitter 
taste. You probably also know how few times in a season you 
have a chance to get all you want to eat of the former sort. It 
is well worth that little trouble that it requires to make sure of 
the first for your table. It is a matter of variety and of taking 
a few precautions in planting. Most planters neglect to take 
pains in regard to either. Many will go to the local hardware 
store or small florist and take whatever they happen to find there 
on faith. Others, having happened to discover some good 
variety or upon the recom¬ 
mendation of a neighbor, will 
buy a quart or two and 
plant them all at once, with 
the result that one or two lots 
may be had in prime con¬ 
dition and the others will be 
too old, as peas go by very 
quickly, especially in dry, hot 
weather, when a difference 
of two or three days may 
mean a difference between 
excellent and medium or 
even very poor quality. Only 
enough of one sort should 
be planted at any one time to 
yield two or three pickings; 
especially is this true of the 
dwarf varieties, which have a 
tendency to mature nearly the 
whole crop at once. More¬ 
over, the public has been 
brought up to over-value the 
point of earliness. The ex¬ 
treme extra-early varieties 
have been urged upon gar¬ 
deners, as if a difference of a 
few days in the first picking 
amounted to much more than 
the quality of the crop for 
the whole season. The truth 
of the matter is that these extra 
early sorts are not the same 
“goods” as the later ones. 
There are in fact so . many 
varieties of peas that people get mixed up in the varieties instead 
of first studying out the type to which they belong. The first 
thing the gardener should get settled definitely in his mind is the 
difference between the round-seeded, hardy early sorts and the 
“wrinkled" sorts, so called because the seeds of these when ripe 
present a shriveled-up or wrinkled appearance. The fact that 
some varieties of each sort have a dwarf habit of growth and 
others a tall is of secondary importance. In fact, the distinction 
between the dwarf and tall sorts is a very indefinite one. In rich 
soil or under favorable conditions the dwarfs will attain a height 
of three or four feet and require supports to keep them from be¬ 
coming a hopeless tangle. The tall sorts, of course, yield a larger 
crop and one that matures more gradually, which is an advantage 
or disadvantage according to 
the way they are handled. 
But the main distinction, 
as I have said, should be 
made between the smooth- 
seeded and the wrinkled- 
seeded sorts. In quality the 
latter are as far ahead of 
the former as sweet corn is 
ahead of field corn, and sev¬ 
eral of the new varieties of 
the wrinkled sorts are, for all 
practical purposes, just as 
early as the old-fashioned, 
round-seeded, extra early. 
There is, in fact, no longer 
much reason why a private 
grower should continue to 
plant the smooth-seeded sorts, 
except possibly a very small 
quantity for the first picking. 
As to whether you will find it 
best to use the dwarf or the 
tall varieties of the wrinkled 
type, and what varieties of 
these to select, will of course 
depend upon individual con¬ 
ditions and your personal 
taste. It becomes more and 
more difficult, even in <mb- 
(Continued on page 66) 
The dwarf sorts may be planted one to three feet apart, according to variety, the 
richness of the soil, and whether they are in single or double rows 
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