PEAS.
It will require one and one-half to two bushels of peas to seed an acre, and no crop finds a more ready sale than fresh peas in the summer and autumn markets. Farmers who are near centres of population, or who enjoy good shipping facilities, will find peas a quick money crop.
Any good soil will produce a crop of this excellent vegetable, but it must not be assumed because the pea is a legume, with nitrogen-collecting roots, that it will not well repay the application of manure to the soil. Peas and beans need less assistance than some other things, but they give good returns for the application of rotted manure or artificial fertilizer.
The seed should be put into the ground in early spring, as soon as the soil is dry enough to receive it, beginning with the smooth, extra-early sorts, which are more hardy than the wrinkled varieties. A little subsequent frost will do no harm.
The smooth, early sorts should be sown in rows, about 3 feet apart, the intermediate or half-dwarf sorts in rows 4 feet apart, and the tall, late varieties, in rows 5 feet apart.
In field operations no sticks are used, and large pickings are taken even from the tall-growing vines while sprawling upon the ground; and the labor is vastly less where no sticks are employed.
The early peas should stand closer in the rows than the later and larger sorts. The Extra Early kinds mature in fifty to fifty-five days from germination; the intermediate kinds in sixty-five to seventy days, and the tall and late kinds in seventy-five to eighty days. For autumn planting, the extra early varieties are used, and are planted until sixty days before frost.
Plant of New Giant Podded Marrow Pea.
Mildew is a field enemy of the pea, resulting from unfavorable weather. The weevil often attacks the seed, but does not injure it for market purposes.
The canning of green peas is now an industry of enormous extent in America. The peas are shelled and sorted by machinery, and thousands of bushels are annually disposed of in this manner.
The wholesale market price of peas in the pod varies from 50 cents to $3 per bushel at Philadelphia. The latter price is for the early product. The usual retail price is 15 to 25 cents per half peck. The crop of green pods per acre may be rated at 100 bushels, more or less.
Peas.—Earliest for the South—Johnson & Stokes' New Record Extra Early, Alaska; second early—Johnson & Stokes' Second Early Market Garden; late—Giant Podded Marrow, Improved Stratagem, Crown Prince, Sugar Marrow. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."