Good green peas are among the blessings of life to be enjoyed with
thankfulness, thankfulness to the Giver of all good, and thankfulness to
the man who invented them. From the bottom of the heart they are to be
pitied whose only green peas are gathered from the field crop sown by
the farmer for his swine, or such as are usually to be found in our
markets and on our hotel tables. And he is a benefactor of his race who
places it within the power of every owner of a town lot to grow nice,
sweet, green peas. In the days when the world was young, and plenty of
pea-brush was to be had for the asking, it was matter of little
consequence whether our choice marrowfat peas climbed five or fifty
feet, but as the world has grown older pea-brush has become scarce, and
brushing the peas an operation that requires considerable outlay of time
and ingenuity. Indeed so inconvenient has it become that tall growing
peas have gone out of cultivation in many places, and men have wished
that some good angel of mercy would bring us a wrinkled pea as sweet and
rich as the Champion of England, whose aspirations did not reach so far
skyward. And because the wish has been gratified, and we have seen with
our eyes and tasted with our lips, and the heart has risen up to bless
the inventor, we give to our readers the information that a man has been
found, not an angel, but what is far better, a man, who by the use of
the powers God has given him, has produced a pea which may be grown in
any garden without any bushing, fully equalling in its sweetness and
richness of flavor any of the tall growing Marrowfats. Not only may we
rejoice in the fact that a man, by the exercise of his faculties, has
been able to undertake to produce such a pea and succeed, but we have
further occasion for rejoicing in the fact that he is one of ourselves,
a citizen of our own land, and that this is but one of many benefits
that he has conferred upon us and upon his race.
Bliss’ American Wonder is the name of this new pea, which was raised by
Mr. Charles Arnold, of Paris, Ontario. With characteristic modesty the
raiser allows the achievement to be ushered into the world by a name
that gives no clue to the possessor of the genius and skill which
produced this result; content, in quiet retirement, to bless mankind
with the fruits of his toil, asking from them no meed of praise. We have
found this new pea to be very dwarf in its habit of growth, a very
abundant cropper, and possessing a sweetness and richness of flavor that
we have not found in any other dwarf pea. Blue Peter, considered a very
promising sort, is so much inferior to this in quality as to make
comparison impossible. In point of height and productiveness there is
not much difference. With such a pea to be had, there is no need of
giving up their cultivation because it is too troublesome to bush the
tall growing sorts, or because the dwarf varieties are deficient in
flavor. If our readers will give this variety a trial, we feel confident
that they will not willingly be without it ever after.
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