Culture oi^ peas. Ill 



arid let theia be dried and sowed immediately. The same 

 means too may be used to prepare them for cooking, and the 

 bugs will drop out after they are dead, and are then easily 

 separated from th« peas. In that case however, tliey should 

 be kept longer in the hot water. 



The time for sowing any kind of peas is as early in the 

 spring as the ground can be well prepared. A dry soil is the 

 best for them. The quantity usually sown upon an acre is two 

 bushels. Some sow three ; and as a reason for sowing the 

 latter qiiantity, they say that by growing thicker they will be 

 less liable to fa]l flat on the ground, which has a tendency to 

 prevent the pods from filling. 



It is difficult to cover peas with the harrow ; they should be 

 ploughed in. It has been said by Lord Kames that peas laid a 

 foot below the surface will vegetate ; but that the most ap- 

 proved depth is six inches in light soil, and four inches in clay- 

 ey soil. 



The following remarks of Mr. Bartram, of Pennsylvania, a 

 distinguished naturalist, respecting the bug in the pea, may 

 lead to some means by which their mischievous effects may 

 be avoided ; "They feed, when in the caterpiUar or grub stata, 

 on tne green garden or field pea as soon as the pods have ar- 

 nvea to a state of maturity, sufficient to show the peas which 

 are withm them. In the evening, or on a cloudy day, the fe- 

 male deposits her eggs on the out side of the pods ; these egg« 

 or nits soon hatch, and the young larva, or worm eats directly 

 through, and enters the tender young pea where it lodges, and 

 remains feeding on its contents, until it changes to a crysalis, 

 aftdthencetoa fly or beetle, before the succeeding spring: 

 but do not eat their way out until the cold and frosts are past. 

 abouUhe beginning of April, when we generally begin to plant 

 peas. After they have disseminated their eggs, they perish, 

 liutthat which is surprising and difficult to be accounted for, 

 IS that the worm leaves the rostellum, or sprout, untouched, or 

 at least umnjured ; for almost every pea vegetates and thrives 

 vigorously, notwithstanding the corculum (the rudiment of 

 the young plant) Plumula seem to be consumed. J. Pecker- 

 mg, ot Wyommg, in Pennsylvania, sowed the early charlton 

 and green marrow-fats, in his garden, in 1789, the first week 

 m May ; the first had green pods in July ; the marrow-fats 

 came later. Some of both kinds were left to ripen. The seed 

 ott he earliest in thespring following were found swarming with 

 fi ?!' u T^'n^T^""^ ^^^'* ^^^ "one. He afterwards sowed his 

 field about the 20th of May, and the crop was free from-bug,s. 

 ne thought the obvious inference was that this mischievous in~ 



