164 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



marrowfat, and kindred varieties, which are the sweetest of 

 peas, are often found shrunken almost to a cube form. The 

 analogy between this and the similar shrinkage of sugar corn 

 will at once suggest itself to the intelligent reader, and may 

 afford matter for interesting investigation. It should, how- 

 ever, be remembered that mere sweetness is not all that is de- 

 sirable in a good pea. To some persons excessive sweetness 

 would be an objection. 



Numerous fancy kinds of peas are annually imported from 

 Europe by our seedsmen, some of them of great excellence, but 

 requiring too much care and too high culture to become staple 

 varieties. Of such, the " Champion of England" among kinds 

 called early, and the " British Queen" among later ones, may 

 be named as of the highest character. 



In speaking of peas, the terms dwarf and tall are rela- 

 tive, and very indefinite. The Spanish dwarf pea grows six 

 inches high, the dwarf marrowfat nearly six feet, yet the latter 

 is rightly enough named dwarf, for the tall marrowfats grow 

 from ten to twelve feet, needing bean-poles to support them 

 instead of pea-brush. 



The ground for peas should never be freshly manured on ac- 

 count of the overgrowth of vine which it occasions, but for late 

 peas the soil should be rich and strong ; for early ones, simply 

 good and dry. 



Peas may be sown at intervals of one or two weeks from the 

 very first opening of spring till a month after, or until the 

 close of corn-planting time. The drills for them should be full 

 two inches deep, for the early kinds two feet apart, and for the 

 late kinds from three to five feet, according to the height they 

 are calculated to grow. The brush for peas of the proper 

 height for the kinds sown should be stuck firmly four or five 

 inches apart on each side of the row, with just so much incli- 

 nation inward as to bring the tops together, yet leaving the 

 whole as bushy or spreading as possible, that the growth may 

 have room to wander, and as large a surface as possible be ex- 

 posed. No crowded crop ever grows finely or yields superior 

 products. 



Some sow their peas in double rows at six or eight inches 



