616 LEQUMINA CEOUS ESCULENTS. 



into these pods, they will grow rapidly. If there is any spare space 

 close along the bottom of a south wall, a row of peas may be planted 

 there in December, protected by branches of yew, or spruce fir, during 

 severe frosts, and during every night till they come into flower ; and 

 instead of being stick ed, the plants may be kept close to the wall with 

 twine or strands of matting, and stopped at the first joint above the 

 first flowers. Thus treated, the pods will be fit to gather a fortnight 

 before those in the open part of the warmest border ; but if the wall is 

 covered with the branches of fruit trees to within a foot of the ground, 

 these will be materially injured by the shade of the peas. A second 

 sowing of the same variety on a warm border, or on the south side of 

 a drill, may be made after the first ; and a third sowing, which may be 

 of the earliest marrow, such as Prizetaker, may be made in March. 

 This will suffice for the early crops. The plants of the last two sow- 

 ings need not be stopped, nor will they require protection. 



A very convenient mode of obtaining an early crop is to sow the 

 peas in January in shallow pots, and protect them from frost by 

 placing them close to the glass in the front of a greenhouse, or under 

 a frame, hand-glasses, or hoops and mats ; and about the middle of 

 March to turn them out with balls into the open air in such situations 

 as we have mentioned. Where pots are scarce, the peas may be sown 

 in rows on pieces of turf, or even tiles, or pieces of boards covered 

 with soil, brought forward on a slight hotbed, and afterwards depo- 

 sited in the open ground ; or they may be raised in shallow pots, and 

 afterwards separated and transplanted singly in rows. In short, there 

 are numerous ways in which peas may be forwarded under cover, or 

 in very gentle heat, in January and February, so as to be ready to 

 transplant into the open ground about the middle or end of March. 

 Peas may be protected in the open garden by 

 Fig. 372. portable covers such as fig. 372, which is thus 



formed : Two long and two short poles of 

 larch, fir, or other straight wood, form each 

 side ; the top piece is left longer, to form handles 

 * at each end, and the sides are attached to the 

 Cover for peas and other t ith hinges, and kept apart by two re- 



early crops. -.* / . . ' ' 



movable stretchers. The whole is then co- 

 vered with sugar-mats, fastened on with laths. The covers are always 

 kept on during night, and mostly opened or taken off during the day 

 (*Gard. Mag.' 1842, p. 187). 



Portable Walls for Early Crops of Peas, fyc. As a substitute for a 

 brick wall a portable wall might be formed of very thick boards, or 

 of double boards ; the vacuity within to be filled up with charcoal, 

 and protected from rain by a coping, and from dropping out by a 

 fixed bottom. Such a wall need not be above three feet in height, 

 and to render it portable, it may be made in lengths of six feet 

 or eight feet, with stakes to serve as strengthening piers, and for 

 readily fixing the wall to the ground. These hurdle walls, as 

 they may be called, would be found useful for a variety of pur- 

 poses beside forwarding peas, such as ripening tomatoes, capsicums, 



