The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13, 1911. A BIG PRIZE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13, 1911. A BIG PRIZE.

Wo have; in Stratford many enthusiastic growers' of the sweet pea, and the Stratford Horticultural Society has always taken an especial interest in encouraging the growing of this beautiful flower. Recently the London “Daily Mail” offered a hig prize of £IOOO for the best hunch of sweet peas, and -this has been awarded to Mrs Eraser, wife of Rev. D. D. Fraser, . The Manse, Sprouston, Kelso, N.B. Mr Eraser himself won the third prize of £IOO. “A visit to Messrs Unwin’s grounds at Histon last year showed me something of the way in which sweet peas should he grown,” says Mr Fraser in the “Mail.” “Then at Christmas time, 1 received as a present from my wife a copy of Stevenson’s book, ‘The Modern Culture of Sweet Peas.’ Following its directions, I had the ground trenched three spades deep and six feet wide. In the bottom of the trench of twenty yards long were put some thirty sacks of old leaves. Manures of various kinds were mixed with the soil, the garden manure being kept a loot below the surface. A dusting of lime was given, and then one of superphosphate just, before the plants were put in. Some of the seeds had been sown in September, but the hulk wore not put in till January and started in pots in a hotbed. They were gradually hardened off ami planted out in March. Wo had studied the catalogues oi Messrs Unwin, Miss Hemns, and Messrs Dobie, and I had noted the names ol the best varieties shown at the National and other shows last year. From those three growers and also from seed of my own the plants wore grown. No water was given till the (lowers came into bloom in June. Then the plants were mulched with stable manure and well watered. Weekly thereafter applications of Rcntlev’s sweet pea manure and of soot alternately were well watered in. The above may lie useful to some future competitors for the Stratford Society’s Sweet Pea Cup, as it nil! doubtless lie of interest to many other of our readers.