24 



EAELY PEAS. 



Some trials of garden peas were instituted 

 in the gardens at Chiswick, by Dr. Hogg, 

 last year, in order to compare the relative 

 merits of new and old varieties, and esta- 

 blish the identities of some which had 

 obtained places in catalogues under va- 

 rious names. The number of so-culled 

 varieties collected was 116. The whole 

 of these were sown on the 19th of 

 February, on ground liberally manured, 

 and were cultivated with, every care ne- 

 cessary to insure reliable residts. Our 

 readers do not need to be again re- 

 minded that the season was unfavourable 

 to almost everything ; suffice it that the 

 first blooms did not appear till tlie 19lh 

 of May, and the first pods were not 

 gathered till the 22ud of June. Some of 

 the varieties grew out of character, and 

 some of real merit failed to prove their 

 excellence owing to the excessive rains aiad 

 the state of the ground. One disdaet 

 residt of the sample culture was the re- 

 duction of the 116 varieties to 70, and 

 one half of these 70 really distinct sorts 

 proved worthless ; so that we may .say, in 

 spite of seedmen's catalogues, that our 

 choice of really good peas lies amang 35 

 instead of 116 varieties. As the sowing of 

 peas is one of the important operations of 

 the month of February, and the ground 

 will be in beautiful tilth if we are favoured 

 with dry weather, we will sum up in a 

 few words all that is likely to interest our 

 readers in respect of the b^st sorts for 

 early crops. 



The eai-liest of all early peas proves to 

 be Dillistone's Eablt, a weak grower, 

 rising two feet on a single stem, and 

 bearing an average of seven to nine pods, 

 which are almost straight, same shape as 

 Sangster's No. 1, but with a shorter and 

 thicker neck. This sort flowered on the 

 19th of May, the slats appeared on the 

 i'Ah of June, and the crop was fit to be 

 gathered on the 22nd of June. A striking 

 l'>ature of Dillistone's Early is that its 

 changes take place all at once, it blooms 

 in a mass, its pods appear all together, and 

 llic whole ci'op is ready to be gathered at 

 the same time. In consequence of this 

 simultaniety of the development of the 

 pods it does not last long, which some 

 may regard as a disadvantage ; further- 

 more it is not so heavy a cropper as 

 Sangster's and Early Emperor ; but it 

 maybe cleaied off the ground very shortly 

 after the fi; : t pods are ready, and to gain 



ground is quite equivalent to the gain of 

 crop, especially at the busy season of mid- 

 summer. 



The next earliest is Sangster's No. 1, 

 to which Dr. Hogg attaches these syno- 

 nyraes — Carter's Earliest, Isherwood's 

 Eailway, Sutton's Champion, Early Wash- 

 ington, Daniel O'Rourke. Sangster's 

 No. 1 blossomed on the 22nd of May, the 

 slats appeared on the 5th of June, and on 

 the 29th of June the pods were ready for 

 gathering, which places it seven days later 

 titan Dillistone's' Early, a matter of no 

 small moment to a market grower, to 

 whom the gain of a week may make a 

 difference of hundreds of pounds. This 

 pea grows two and a-half feet high, bears 

 eight to ten pods each plant. 



Early Emperor stands next in point 

 of earliness. Tlie following synonymes 

 arc added — Early Sebastopol, Morning 

 Star, Rising Sun. We think we could 

 add fifty other synonymes, for this and 

 Sangster's No. 1 are the sorts sold as 

 A's Cliampion, B's Matchless, C's In- 

 comparable, D's Defiance, etc., etc. Some 

 seedsmen dip into the Emperor's bin for 

 all the early sorts asked for. It is,_ how- 

 ever, a good pea, produces a more regular 

 and rather louger pod than either of the 

 two preceding, has less neck than either 

 of them, and is a prime article for the 

 table. It is rc^^orted to rise two and a- 

 half to three feet at Chiswick ; we have 

 seen it run to four feet and bear pro- 

 portionately heavier on well manured clay 

 on the north side of London. Tlie Em- 

 peror bloomed on the 24th of May, the 

 pods were fit to be gathered on the 3i'd 

 of July. It is always a heavier cropper 

 than the two preceding kinds, but eleven 

 days later than Dillistone's, and four days 

 later than Sangster's. 



Tom Thumb (synonymes. Beck's G-em, 

 Royal Dwarf, Nain Hatif extra) is' the 

 dwarfest of all early peas, rarely exceeding 

 a foot in height, stout habit, branching 

 from the ground, each plant producing 

 from fourteen to eighteen pods, mostly 

 borne in pairs. The pods are smooth, 

 dark green, well filled, and contain five to 

 eight peas each, almost as large as Im- 

 perials. The ripe seed is somewhat ovate, 

 and of a grayish pearly colour. These 

 bloomed 29th of May, the crop was fit to 

 be gathered on the 3rd of July ; so that 

 as to earliness it takes place beside the 

 Emperor. It is a capital pea for forcing 



