The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-14

No outdoor pleasure can exceed that of the amateur specialist in Horticulture.
 What this speciality should be for | the writer was decided by his first vision of the sweet pea 20 years ago. A l Boston business man had a fine place in Newton Highlands and large element iof horticultural enthusiasm. Even then he had discovered the virtues of the sweet pea as an exhibition flower. al though but dozen common sorts com lprised the list at that time. From that
 day to this the writer has not seen a | more perfectly grown hedge of sweet peas than those five years before MT
 Eckford's splendid novelties were intro iduced. With that first vision constant | ly before his eyes he went to work.
 Farqualrar's catalogue was then a mine of wealth. with it's modest list of a few plebelan varieties, but everything must be had, for even then the idea of a collection" of sweet peas had
 daWned. Soon a call to another parish came and it was there under more favorable conditions, that a veritable sweet pea, garden attained local fame,
 In a spacel 50 feet square there were 19 varieties, section of each, and those were days when but little skill was required to grow this flower to per lfection. They made a perfect root then, | and the result was a profusion of
 bloom that Well-nigh hid the foliage.
 Nineteen varieties of sweet peas then seemed triumph. The writer did not dream what was to follow in the next no years. A veritable romance was in store. F 'ts : l One day. as the autumn season was lhastening on and the abundant bloom of 19 varieties of sweet peas showed isigns of a liberal crop of seed, the writer, who had labored to swell the missionary collections of his church thught to himself: ''Why not raise some missionary money out of the sweet pea seed. Fifty dollars for mis- sions from sweet pea seedls He wrote | down to the Home Missionary society in New York, making an offer as. follows which duly appeared in the Home Mis-
 sionary Magazine: Any lady sending | 50 cents to- the Home Missionary office will have her name forwarded to--and will receive full ounce of sweat pea seed, containing i9 varieties.'' Word
 had been sent that there was enough
 seed to bring $50; but in few days the secretary wrote, saying: "The $50 is al-
 ready takenein and more is being sent where is the seed to come from ?''
 Back went the word: 'Let it go on: the offer will be made good to all.'
 And it wass and that year the amount received by the New York treasury
 was $125. It was tried the following year. and d third year, until the fame of the missionary sweet peas'' went from Mainesto California. And the full ! amount gleaned by the Home Mission ary Society was something over $500.
 | That was one chapter in the story. The next chapter was that this sweet pea garden which grew in local fame | was the occasion of a literature on the sweet pea. This was at Ellington, Conn.,, and the Holland County Leader solicited an article on the beautiful sweet pea 5 This was the beginning of the literature of this flower in this country. This was soon followed by a request from W. Atlee Burpie & Co.,, of Philadelphia, for book oil the subject. This was
 prepared. All about Sweet Peas," and