The Ordway New Era

Finest Quality Peas Win Favor

Intermediate Variety Bear Better When Given Support of Low Brush or Wire.

Little Marvel Is Superior

Best Plan to Depend on Succession Planting a Week or Ten Days Apart Rotation Is Also of Much Importance.

The very finest quality peas at the present time are neither, strictly speaking, dwarfs, nor are they tall. They are intermediate and while they may be grown as dwarfs and without brushing, they bear better when given the support of low brush or a narrow strip of chicken wire. These are the Gradus and Laxton types of pea, which vary from 30 inches to almost four feet, according to variety. All do better with support, although commonly grown as dwarfs. They give a heavier yield when held upright.

Wrinkled Type Superior.

Of the very early peas of the wrinkled type, which is much superior to the earliest smooth-seeded type, Little Marvel still holds a high place among really dwarf peas, the vines being only about eighteen inches. It matures in eight weeks and is very hardy and of the finest quality. A little earlier is Market Surprises Alaska and Maud S., smooth-seeded peas, still remain the earliest of all, of good quality if taken very young, but not equal to the wrinkled varieties, which are not so hardy and cannot be planted or cropped so early.

It is possible with the variety of peas now on the market to plan a good succession planting, starting with Alaska, Surprise, Little Marvel, Gradus, Laxtonian and Thomas Laxton. However, it is better to depend upon a successional planting a week or ten days apart, as the season may be such as to bring the cropping of different peas too close together at maturity, if planted at the same time.

The planting of peas in double rows, six inches apart, these double rows to be three feet apart, is about right for the more dwarf varieties, but if the more vigorous growing dwarfs are to be planted they will need at least four feet between the rows unless they are given brush or wire.

The round seeded peas can go into the ground as soon as it can be dug, but it is best to wait a week or two for the wrinkled varieties to be on the safe side.

Rotation Is Necessary.

The peas should not be planted this year in the same position that they occupied last year. Neither should they be placed in ground occupied the previous season by beans for best results. A gardener should study his garden plan each year with an eye to moving the peas and beans across the garden, so that they will not occupy the same space in succeeding years. Of course, heavy fertilizing partly makes up for the exhausting of the soil, but it cannot wholly do so. These two vegetables take more out of the soil than the others and it is more necessary to see that they rotate.

Method of Brushing Peas.