THE PEA. 615 



duce is obtained when they are sown broadcast ; but by this mode the 

 soil cannot be conveniently stirred or weeded. Peas are generally 

 sown in single drills, at the same distance apart as the plants grow 

 high, with intervening rows of spinach, or some such secondary crop, 

 which is gathered before the peas are matured ; but for all the taller 

 growing kinds it is better considerably to increase the distance, so as to 

 allow abundance of light and air to the peas, by which they will be 

 much more productive, and a crop of a more permanent kind than 

 spinach, such as some of the cabbage tribe, or roots or tubers, obtained 

 between. A much larger crop, and a great saving of ground is by 

 this means obtained. It is well known that the outsides of double 

 rows bear much more abundantly than the insides ; and if only two 

 rows in one place, and two more in another, fifteen or twenty feet dis- 

 tant, were sown, there would be four outsides ; whereas, if they were 

 all sown together, there would be but two outsides. Two rows in one 

 place occupy three feet six inches in width, and two rows in another 

 the same, making together seven feet ; but if four rows were sown 

 together, they would take up eleven feet or twelve feet of ground. 

 Here, therefore, is a saving of ground of nearly one-half. (* Gard. 

 Mag.,' vol. iv. p. 225.) In pea culture, there is not a greater error 

 than that of sowing the seeds too thick in the row. We would recom- 

 mend, in every case except in that of the crops sown to stand the 

 winter, to deposit the peas singly in the same manner as beans are 

 planted. We know some gardeners who practise this mode, and they 

 have always a larger produce, larger pods, and larger peas in them, 

 than those who sow thick, and do not thin out. Abercrombie, who is 

 one of the safest of guides in matters of this kind, recommends for the 

 early frame, three peas in the space of an inch ; dwarf marrowfat, two 

 in an inch ; blue Prussian and similar sorts, three in two inches ; for 

 Knight's marrow and all similar dwarf sorts, a full inch apart ; and for 

 all the tall-growing sorts, an inch and a half or two inches apart. 

 For the early sorts, the seeds of which are small, the drills may be an 

 inch and a half deep ; and for the larger sorts, they may be two inches 

 deep. After covering the peas by putting back, with the hoe, the 

 earth that came out of the drill, it should be trodden down, if the soil 

 is in good condition as regards dryness ; but if from situation, or the 

 state of the weather, it should be otherwise, it is better only to chop 

 the soil with the teeth of the rake, holding the handle nearly upright. 

 The Earliest Crops. In the neighbourhood of London, every gar- 

 dener is expected to gather peas in the first week in June, if not before. 

 To accomplish this, the early frame should be sown in a warm border, 

 or along the south side of an east-and-west ridge in the open garden, 

 towards the middle or end of November; if the winter is mild, the 

 plants will appear above ground in January, or early in February, when 

 they must be slightly earthed up, and during hard frosts protected by 

 haulm, fern, litter or dried branches with the leaves on. Early in May 

 they will have shown blossoms, and then every plant must be stopped 

 at the first joint above the blossom, so as not to have more than two 

 pods on a plant. The whole strength of the root being thus thrown 



