178 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 



in our experience an exception to the p;eneial 

 rale that spiders generally succumb to ''strong 

 odors." There are specfes that hang in their 

 festooned webs for days, and weeks, and 

 months, in old " water closets," the stench in 

 which is almost strong enough to " lloat an 

 iron wedge," and seemingly with perfect im- 

 punity, too. True, tliey may be driven to such 

 localities by dire necessity, as places most pro- 

 lific in furnisliing tliim their coveted fly-diet, 

 but there they are, from S))ring until late" in au- 

 tumn, " as fat as fools." Any water closet, 

 or privy, the cesspool of whicli furnishes the 

 element in which common flies are develoiied, 

 will be occupied by these spiders. Keverthe- 

 less, they never touch or apjiropriate anything 

 that is dead, decayed, or filthy, and they are 

 always neat, and clean, and dry in their "per- 

 sonal appearance." There seems to be an 

 unnecessary prejudice existing against spiders 

 by most of people. Spiders are most ravenous 

 feeders, and destroy more noxious and annoy- 

 ing insects, for their size and'weight, than any 

 other class of animals in the world; and by 

 a singular coincidence, wherever the kind 

 of insects they prefer " most do congiegate," 

 there also the spiders will be. Some years ago, 

 when the oat-fields were infested by the Oat- 

 Aphis, in certain favorable localities, the spi- 

 ders, in countless numbers, sjiun their webs 

 between the fence rails, and causlit millions of 

 tlie winged individuals, and uyion these deli- 

 cate little morsels they fed and fattened. Ex- 

 cept the Jumping, or Hunting-spiders, they do 

 not go in quest of their prey, but they spread 

 their nets and wait until it "comes to them, and 

 sometimes they have to wait in a state of 

 semi-starvation lor a long time. 



Spiders, properly speaking, are not insects. 

 nor are they classed with them, but form a 

 distinct clas"s of their own, between the In- 

 sects and the Ckustaceass (crabs, .shrimps 

 and lobsters.) Insects are hexapods (six- 

 footed), spiders are oc(opoc?s (eight-footed) and 

 crustaceans are dcmix/ds (ten-footed) ; if there 

 were no other differences, these would be 

 sufficient to at once distinguish them. 



The spider's web is one of the most remark- 

 able fabrics i)roduced in the whole animal 

 world. 11 has hundreds of spinerets, and, 

 therefore, what we look upon as a single thread 

 or cord, is a compound cable, composed of 

 hundreds of liner cords. These spinerets are 

 located imder and near the end of the abdo- 

 men ; but in spinning insects, the thread, or 

 cord, issues from the mouth. The bodies of 

 insects are conspicuously composed of three 

 divisions — the liead, the thorax^ and the a6c7o- 

 men; but in spiders, there are only two — the 

 cephulalharax and \.\w(djdijrnen. 



Kothing is more true than the opening re- 

 mark in this paper, namely, that "every ani- 

 mal lives by depredation." Notwithstanding 

 the s])ider preys upon other animals, he is 

 preyed upon in turn. And notwithstanding 

 he is fearless and relentless in enveloping and 

 appropriating his victims, yet when he is ap- 

 proached by his natural enemies, he seems to 

 become entirely helpless, and readily yields to 

 his fate. He is captured by certain .species of 

 wasps, who Ix'ar him away and stock their 

 cells with his body, nor lias he the power to 

 make his escape, although the aperture re- 

 mains open until the cell is filled. When the 

 cell is full, an egg is deposited therein, and 

 when hatched, the sjiiders, one after another, 

 become food for the young wasp. They are 

 not killed, but only jiaralyzed, and doomed to 

 a living tomb, until they are appropriated. 

 Cruel as spiders seem, they are capable of the 

 greatest affection or solicitude for their eggs 

 or their young. Some female spiders carry 

 these with them in a S(n-t of silken .sack, and 

 if this sack is i>url()incd, it is an easy matter 

 to capture the mother spider, for often she 

 becomes helpless (with grief?), and falls a 

 voluntary victim to maternal afl'cction, or 

 something that appears as such. * 



OUR CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Save two cents a week and you can have 

 The LANCASTEuFARJiEiifor a whole year — 

 the great Centennial year at that ! Just think 

 of it— less than two cents a week— only eight 

 cents a month ! 



No. 3.— The Pea. (Pisum.) 

 The pea, like the bean, has been used for 

 food for an imknown period, and it is an in- 

 teresting fact that the bean and a small kind 

 of pea, allied to the present variety, have 

 been found in the lake habitations of Switzer- 

 land, which existed in the stone and bronze 

 ages. We have no account that the Greeks 

 and Rcimans numbered green peas among 

 their numerous dishes, although we are told 

 that in their mature state 4;he connnon people 

 made the grey pea their principal food. Ac- 

 cording to ISIartial, they were sold at the the- 

 atres and circuses at a low price to spectators, 

 who regaled and even gorged themselves with 

 fried peas ; and it is related by some Roman 

 writers that those who were candidates for 

 any public emjiloyment used to distribute grey 

 peas gratuitously to the people, in order to 

 obtain their suffrages. From which it ap- 

 jiears that votes were to be had at a much 

 cheaper rate than in the present day. 



Pliny informs us that the Greeks, in the 

 month of November, sowed their peas, but 

 the Romans did not plant theirs until spring, 

 and then only in warm places lying well to 

 the sun ; for of all things, says this author, 

 the pea cannot endure cold. 



Historical evidence would make it appear 

 that both the pea and the bean must not only 

 have been introduced, but extensively culti- 

 vated in some parts of Scotland, as well as in 

 England, at a very early period. It is on re- 

 cord tliat when the English forces were be- 

 sieging a castle in Lothian, in tlie year 1299, 

 their supply of provisions was exhausted, and 

 their oidy resource was in the peas and beans 

 of the surrounding fields. It was not until 

 after the Norman Conquest, and the estab- 

 lislmient of monastic communities, that we 

 read of green peas being used. In Fosbrook's 

 "British Monasticon," it is stated that at 

 Barking Nunnery the annual store of provi- 

 sion consisted, inter alia, of green peas for 

 Lent ; green peas against midsunmier ; and in 

 "Archceologia," vol. 13, in "Order and Gov- 

 ernment of a Nobleman's House," it is men- 

 tioned : "If any will have peas soon in the 

 year following, such peas are to be sown in 

 the waine of the moon at St. Andro's tide, 

 before Christmas." It appears from a song 

 called "London Lychpeny," written in the 

 reign of Henry VI., that pea cods or pods were 

 sold in the streets of London at that period. 

 " Tlu'n into London I dyde me hye, 

 Of all land it be.aryctli the pryee ; 

 Gode pesfode one began to cry." 

 At Windsor there is a street called Peacod, 

 mentioned by that name in old documents, 

 Perhapsa'more delicate variety was introduced 

 about the reign of Henry VIII., for in the 

 \n-\vy purse expenses of that king is the fol- 

 lowing entry : " Paid to a man in reward for 

 bringing pescods to the King's grace, iiijs. 

 viiid." Yet garden peas appear to have been 

 rare in the early part of Elizabeth's reign ; as 

 Fuller observes they were seldom seen, except 

 those which were brought from Holland, and 

 " these," says he, "were dainties for ladies, 

 they came so far and cost so dear ;" but in the 

 latter part of her reign gardening had made 

 considerable progress T and, taking into con- 

 sideration how little it had been previously 

 studied, her days produced the most comiilete 

 herbalist, who "studied and wrote on all plants 

 known at that jieriod. Gerard's woik is as 

 excellent as it is voluminous, being free from 

 those astrological alisurdities that disgrace 

 the herbals of Culpepper and others, who 

 wrote about the time of the Commonwealtli. 



A mind like Gerard's would be above such 

 ridiculous superstition, and would know that 

 a knowledge of herbs would be sooner gained 

 by looking down to examine plants, than by 

 looking up to observe the stars or iilanets. 

 This author informs us that one variety of pea 

 is indigenous to this country. He says : "The 

 wild pea do grow in pastures and araljle fields 

 belonsing to the Bishops Hatfield, in Hert- 

 fordshire." He adds : " There bedivers sjorts 

 of peason, differing very notably in many re- 



spects, some of the garden, and others of the 

 field, and yet both counted tame ; some with 

 tough skins or membranes in the cods, and 

 others have none at all ; whose cods are to be 

 eaten with the jieas when they are joung, as 

 those of young kidney beans ; others carrying 

 their fruit in the tops of the branches, are es- 

 teemed as Scottish peason, which are not 

 common. He also describes the wild and 

 everlasting iiea, which, perhaps, may be gome 

 variety of Lathynis, or Vetchling. 



Tusser has the following jiassage in his "Five 

 Hundred Points of Good Husbandry." For 

 the month of January, he says : 

 " Dig garden, stroy mallow, now may ye at ease, 

 And set (as a daintie) tby roueival pease." 



Roncival was an old word for liirge and 

 strong, derived from the gigantic bones of the 

 old heroes pretended to be shown at Ronces- 

 valles. 



Hence the word became a common epithet 

 for anything large or strong, as Roncival peas, 

 the large sort now called manow-fat. (See 

 Timb's "Things not Generally Known.") 



Green peas became a popular delicacy in 

 England soim after the restoration of Charles 

 II. and, strange enough, even for late ones, 

 so early as 1T()9, as it is a matter of history, 

 that on the 28th of October of that year, a 

 guinea a pottle — not quite half a dish — was 

 given at (Movent Garden market; and as much 

 as ten times that sum has been paid since in 

 the same market, for a quart of green peas 

 shelled. 



There are many curious and superstitious 

 customs with resiiect to peas and beans, relat- 

 ed in " Brand's Popular Antiquities. " I will 

 just mention one or two. 1st, on Carling Sun- 

 day — the Sunday before Palm Sunday — at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many other placed 

 in the North of England, grey peas, after hav- 

 ing been steeped a night in water, are fried with 

 butter, given away, and eaten at a kind of en- 

 tertainment. They are called carlings, proba- 

 bly as we call the presents at fairs, fiiiriiigs. 

 From what the custom arose is uncei'tain, but 

 an old author states that it took its rise from 

 the disciples plucking the ears of corn and rub- 

 bing them in their hands. The eflicacy of ]iea- 

 cods in love affairs is also one of the pojudar 

 superstitions alluded to by Touchstone in " As 

 You Like it," Act II., scene 4, and it is said 

 still practiced in Suffolk and other parts of the 

 country. The kitchen maid, when she shells 

 green peas, never omits, if she finds one hav- 

 ing nine peas, to lay it on the lintel of the 

 kitchen door, and the first clown who enters 

 it is infallibly to be her husband, or at least 

 her sweetheart. 



The pea goes through all the stages of its 

 vegetation in a very brief period. More than 

 one instance is on record of a crop being ob- 

 tained from seed matured the same season. In 

 Fleming's i>'ritis/t Farmers'' Mmjuzine, Novem- 

 ber, 182(5, it is stated that some Spanish dwarf 

 peas were sown in February, and the crop was 

 reaped the first week in July. Some of the 

 pods were left to mature their seed, which, 

 when sutKeiently ripe, were again committed 

 to tlie earth on the same piece of gi'ound, and 

 a second crop was reaped on the 27th of Sep- 

 tember. 



The varieties and sub-varieties of the com- 

 mon pea are never-ending. These have ob- 

 tained their names, some from imaginary qual- 

 ities, some from the peculiar mode of culture, 

 others from the persons who first produced 

 them, and some from more fanciful distinc- 

 tions. The native country of the pea, like 

 most of our cultivated vegetables, is not knowni. 

 Valmont Boinare says the garden pea was 

 originally of France. Coles informs us, in his 

 " II istory of Plants, " that "the Fulham pease, 

 which came first out of France, are so called 

 because the grounds about Fulham, near Lon- 

 don, do bring them forward soonest." The 

 English name appears to be a corruption of 

 the Latin Pisuno. Tusser and Gerard both 

 wrote it peason. Dr. Holland, in Charles I. 's 

 reign, spells it pease, since abbreviated into 

 pea. 



The Sea-pea, Pisum Mdritimns, now Lntlvj- 

 rus Maritimus, is a native of this coiuitry. It 



