618 LEGUMINA CEOUS ESCULENTS. 



they are burrowing underneath it. Wetting the peas before sowing, 

 and dusting them over with red lead, protects them from both mice 

 and rats ; but the best mode is to attempt the destruction of such 

 vermin, which is easily effected by a covered pit, or a covered vessel 

 of water, or for rats good traps. With respect to birds, while they 

 must be destroyed, especially sparrows, they are so useful in gardens 

 in keeping down insects and eating snails, worms, &c., as well as so 

 agreeable by their song, that we would allow them a small share of 

 such seeds and fruits as are of easy growth. The reader is recom- 

 mended to peruse on this subject the articles on birds in Waterton's 

 * Essays on Natural History.' 



To save seed, allow a row or two, according to the quantity wanted, 

 to ripen all their pods, previously pulling out any plants that appear 

 to be of a different variety, or to have degenerated. Peas will grow 

 the second year, but not often the third or fourth. 



In a rotation of garden crops, the pea alternates well with the cab- 

 bage tribe, with root crops, or with perennial crops. 



Forcing the Pea. See page 520. 



The Bean. 



The Garden Bean (Vicia Faba, L.) is an erect annual, supposed to 

 be a native of Egypt, and, like the pea, in cultivation from the 

 remotest antiquity, for its seeds. These are used in soups, or dressed 

 by themselves, and are considered very nourishing, though not of so 

 delicate a flavour as the pea. The best varieties are, Marshall's Early 

 Dwarf Prolific, by far the best early variety ; the Early Mazagan, so 

 named from a place in Portugal, a later-growing early variety, which 

 comes in about a fortnight after Marshall's ; the Early Longpod, a very 

 prolific variety ; the Broad Windsor, with the largest seeds, and best 

 flavoured of all the beans, but not a good bearer, excepting in rich 

 soils ; the best varieties for a late crop are Beck's Green Gem, and 

 Wonderful. The seed is ordered by the pint or quart, and for the small 

 beans a pint is required for every eighty feet of row, and for the 

 larger kinds two quarts for every 240 feet of row. The bean comes 

 up in a week, ten days, or a fortnight, according to the season. Not 

 less than a quart of seed will be required to produce a single gather- 

 ing occasionally. The times of sowing, and the situation in the 

 garden, for the earliest crops, are the same as for the pea ; but the 

 plants do not require sticking, nor, as the seeds are longer of coming 

 to maturity, is it usual to sow later for an autumnal crop than the 

 beginning of June. Marshall's Dwarf Prolific bean may be planted 

 in rows two feet apart, and at six inches distant in the row, and the 

 other sorts in rows two feet and a half to three feet apart ; or, which 

 will ensure a larger crop, in rows eight feet or ten feet apart, with 

 dwarf-growing crops between, as recommended for the pea. The seeds 

 may be deposited in drills an inch and a half or two inches deep, 

 and covered and pressed down like the pea. Very early crops may 

 be brought forward under cover, or by other means used in obtain- 



