RAISING PEAS— KITCHEN-GARDEN TALK 



peas, as well as for every thing else, and the best way to do this is to ridge up theground 

 in the fall, after all the crops are taken off, digging-in a good dressing of fresh stable-manure 

 when you are throwing it up into ridges. If this has not been done, and still here you 

 are at the beginning of March, with spade in hand, and a bag of peas for planting lying 

 before you, you must make the most of it for the time. If your garden is rich, this will 

 be done by marking out the drills, and sprinkling along them a light dressing of leached 

 ashes, (about half as much as will fairly hide the soil in the drill,) covering this with a 

 little soil, and planting the peas upon that. If your soil is poor, dig in a good dressing of any 

 manure you can get — even fresh stable manure — over the whole ground, before you plant 

 the peas. Or, if manure is scanty, then mark out the drill, lay a dressing of manure 

 upon it, and turn it under half a spade deep — smoothing all, and planting over the ma- 

 nured furrow in the common way. 



"And what is the common way," somebody asks who never planted a pea in his life. 

 It is as simple as ruling a copy book. You have only to mark off the newly dug ground 

 into straight lines, (two and a-half feet apart, if you are planting early peas, or three and 

 a-halt if late ones,) open a drill about an inch deep, with a hoe, along these lines. Then 

 drop the peas in this drill, about an inch apart. Some persons plant only a single line of 

 peas in the drill, others make the drill as broad as the blade of the hoe, and scatter the 

 peas an inch apart throughout the whole — and I recommend the last way as giving the 

 largest crop. Of course, j^ou must have such a thing as a garden lino, to make a straight 

 drill — for straight lines in the kithen-garden give it as much a look of neatness and order, 

 as they do in the copy book. Having covered the peas, by drawing over them with the hoe 

 all the earth that you pushed aside to make the drill, you have nothing to do but wait till 

 they come up. When they have grown four or five inches high, and begin to put out their 

 little feelers, or tendrils, you must provide something for them to catch hold of, either in 

 the way of sharpened sticks, usually called "pea brush," or by stakes driven down 

 every ten or fifteen feet on each side of the drills, with lines of twine stretched from one 

 to the other. Either makes a good support, but the branchy pea-brush is the best, because 

 the most like nature's way of allowing vines to run over a bush. When you stick the peas, 

 you must loosen the soil well, and draw a little up on each side, to help keep up the vines. 

 No doubt you expect me to tell you which are the very best peas for your own garden, for 

 you have been puzzled, I dare say, by the many new and old names that you see in the seeds- 

 men's catalogues. I will be glad to do this, for I have tried many of them, and am content 

 with three ; which, indeed, I think will give you the topmost flavor of this vegetable, as 

 well as the most reliable and surest crops. 



First then. Prince yilbert, for the best early pea; second, the Champion of England, 

 for the best large pea; and third. Knight's Tall Marroio, for the best summer crop. 



Prince Jllhert IS. a variety of the old "Early Frame," or " Early Washington," of 

 the same habit and flavor, (but rather more dwarf,) decidedly earlier, and I think a bet- 

 ter bearer. At any rate, after trying it along side of the Early Frame, and Early Charl- 

 ton, Cedo Nulli, and four or five others, for three years, I have given up all others as sup- 

 planted by the Prince Albert — now pretty generall}'^ admitted to be the best early pea. 



Champion of England is a first rate marrowfat pea — the best of its class — and the very 

 best large pea — tender and very sugary. It grows about three and a-half to four feet 

 high, is a fine healthy plant, and bears most abundant crops. Planted at the same time 

 as the early peas, it is fit to gather about three or four weeks later. The very large peas 

 s are slightly shrivelled, and of a bluish cast in the dry state. If you are to 

 two peas, this and the Prince Albert are the sorts for your money 



