LEGUMINOSJE. CLXXI. PISUM. 



329 



boards nailed together leiigthwise at riglit angles, which form a 

 very secure and easy-managed covering, but excludes light. A 

 better plan would be to glaze one of the sides, to be kept to the 

 south, and to manage such row-glasses, as they might be called, 

 when over peas, beans, spinach, &c. as hand-glasses are managed 

 when over cauliflowers, that is, to take them off in fine weather, 

 or raise them constantly or occasionally, by brick-bats or other 

 props, as the weather and the nature of the crop might require." 

 London, cncy. garcl. p. 691. 



Management of a late crop. The best variety for this pur- 

 pose is Knight's marrom-pea, which may be sown at intervals of 

 10 days from the beginning to the end of June. " The ground 

 is dug over in the usual way, and the spaces to be occupied by 

 the future rows of peas are well soaked with water. The mould 

 upon each side is then collected so as to form ridges 7 or 8 

 inches above the previous level of the ground, and these ridges 

 are well watered. The seeds are now sown in single rows 

 along the tops of the ridges. The plants grow vigorously, 

 owing to the depth of soil and abundant moisture. If dry 

 weather at any time set in, water is supplied profusely once a 

 week. In this way the plants continue green and vigorous, re- 

 sisting mildew, and yielding fruit till subdued by the frost." 

 If art. trans, vol. 2. 



Taking the crop. " The early crops are generally gathered 

 in very young growth, often too young, when the pods are thin 

 and the peas small, for the sake of presenting some at table as 

 soon as possible. In the main crops there is no cause for pre- 

 cipitation ; take them as they become pretty plump, while the 

 peas are yet green and tender. Leave none on to grow old, the 

 young pods will then fill in greater perfection, and the plants 

 will continue longer in bearing." 



To save seed. " Either sow approved sorts in the spring, 

 for plants to stand wholly for seed, to have the pods ripen in 

 full perfection ; or occasionally leave some rows of any main 

 crop ; let all the early pods ripen, and gather the later formed 

 ones for the table, as the last gleanings of a crop seldom afford 

 good full seed. For public supply extensive crops are com- 

 monly raised in fields. Let the seed attain full maturity, indi- 

 cated by the pods turning brown and the peas hardening ; then 

 to be hooked up and prepared for threshing out, in due time 

 cleansed and housed." /Ibercrornbie. 



Forcing peas. " Peas," Nicol observes, "are often raised in 

 forcing-houses, and are brought to perfection very early." 



For forcing peas in a pit, sow as directed for French beans, 

 Phaseolis vulgaris, in pots or boxes, and transplant when 1-^ 

 or 2 inches high into the pit in rows 15 inches asunder, and 3 

 inches from each other in the row. 



Temperature may be progressive, beginning at 40 or 50 

 and rising to 52 or 66 from the origin of the plant to the state 

 of flowering, and after flowering increase from 55 to 70, or 

 in a regular heat between the latter limits. For hot-beds the 

 temperature may be 50, or 55 for the nursery-bed, and 55 to 

 65 for fruiting. 



The best sort of r.ea to force, is the genuine early-frame. 



Forcing peas in apeach or cherry-house. For the earliest crop 

 some of the true early-frame sort may be sown in October, in 

 the borders of a cherry-house, peach-house, or vinery, in- 

 tended to be forced from the beginning of the year. By the time 

 the forcing commences they w ill be fit for transplanting, which 

 is to be done in the same borders, either in a single row, or in 

 more rows, according to the room. The distance between the 

 rows may be 15 or 18 inches, and 2 inches in the line. 



" In forcing peas," Nicol observes " they should always be 

 transplanted. They become more prolific, and run less to 

 straw by that management than when they are sown where 

 they are to remain. Indeed, it would be worth while to trans- 



VOL. II. 



plant the earliest crops in the open ground." Nicol, kal. 

 p. 29. 



Beans may be forced in a similar manner, though this is sel- 

 dom attempted. 



Field peas, their culture and uses. 



The pea is the most esteemed legume in field cultivation, both 

 for its seed and haulm, and was cultivated by the Greeks and 

 Romans, and in this country from time immemorial, though its 

 culture appears to have diminished since the more general intro- 

 duction of herbage plants and roots ; and, excepting near large 

 towns for gathering green, and in a few places for boiling, the 

 pea has given way to the bean, or to a mixture of peas and beans. 

 There are various inducements, however, to the cultivation of peas 

 in dry warm soils near large towns. When the crop is good and 

 gathered green, few pay better. The ground, after the peas have 

 been removed, is readily prepared for turnips, which also pay 

 well as a retail crop near towns, and the haulm is good fodder. 

 The varieties of peas cultivated in fields are numerous, but 

 they may be divided into two classes, those grown for the ripened 

 seed, and those grown for gathering in a green state. The 

 culture of the latter is chiefly near large towns, and may be 

 considered as in part belonging to horticulture rather than agri- 

 culture. The grey varieties are, the early-grey, the late- 

 grey, the purple-grey, Marlborough-grey, and the horn-grey. 

 The white varieties grown in fields are, the pearl, early Chart- 

 ton, golden Hotspur, the common white or Suffolk, and other 

 Suffolk varieties. New varieties are readily procured by selec- 

 tion or impregnation. 



In the choice of sorts, where it is desired to grow grey peas 

 for the sake of the seeds, the early variety is to be preferred in 

 late situations, and the late variety in early ones; but when it is 

 intended to grow them chiefly for covering the ground, and for 

 haulm, then the late varieties claim the preference, and especially 

 the purple-grey. Of white peas to be grown for gathering 

 green, the Charlton is the earliest, and the pearl or common Suf- 

 folk the most, prolific. When white peas are grown for boilers, 

 that is, for splitting, the pearl and Suffolk are also the best 

 sorts. It is supposed by some to be of considerable importance 

 to the economy of a farm, when the nature of the soil is suitable, 

 to have recourse to the early sorts, as by such means the crops 

 may be in many cases cut, and secured while there is leisure, be- 

 fore the commencement of the wheat harvest. And where the 

 nature of the soil is dry and warm, and the pea crop of a suf- 

 ficiently forward kind, it may be easy to obtain a crop of turnips 

 from the same land in the same year, as has already been sug- 

 gested. But with this view it is the best practice to sow the crops 

 in the row method, and keep them perfectly clean by means of 

 attentive hand or horse-hoeing, as in that way the land will be in 

 such a state of preparation for a crop of turnips, as only to re- 

 quire a slight ploughing, which may be done as soon as the pea 

 crop is removed, and the turnip-seed drilled in as quickly as 

 possible upon the newly turned up earth. In some particular 

 districts a third crop is even put into the same land, the turnips 

 being cleared ofF in the autumn, and replaced by cole-worts, for 

 the purpose of greens in the following spring. This, according to 

 Middleton, is the practice in some places in Middlesex. But it 

 is obviously a method of cultivation that can only be attempted 

 on the warm and fertile kinds of turnip soil, and where the pea 

 crops are early ; on the cold, heavy, and wet descriptions of land 

 it is obviously impracticable, and wholly improper. London, 

 encycl. agri.p. 766. 



The soil best suited for peas is a dry calcareous sand ; it should 

 ^be in good tilth, not too rich, nor dunged along with the crop. In 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, peas are often sown after clover-leys, after 

 one furrow, or after corn crops on two furrows, one given in 

 autumn, and the other early in spring. 

 U u 



