PEA 



PEA 



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sorts that grow large should have 

 a weaker soil ; in a stronger soil 

 the smaller sorts answer best. 

 The manures that suit pease best 

 are marie and lime. 



Horse-hoeing husbandry appli- 

 ed, if it were practicable, would 

 greatly assist the growth of pease. 

 They soon begin to trail upon the 

 ground, that the season in which 

 this culture can be applied, is ex- 

 tremely short. But some have 

 obtained very good crops in this 

 way. Much of the seed at least 

 might be saved. 



Our farmers do not commonly 

 allow a sufficient quantity of seed 

 for pease, in broad-cast sowing. 

 When pease are sowed thin, the 

 plants will lie upon the ground, 

 and perhaps rot : When they are 

 thick, the plants will hold each 

 other up, with their tendrils, form- 

 ing a continued web ; and will 

 have more benefit of the air. 



At Fryburgh and Conway, as I 

 am informed, the farmers sow 

 three bushels on an acre, according 

 to the practice in England ; and 

 their crop, one time with another, 

 is upwards of twenty bushels. 

 This is certainly better for them, 

 than to sow one bushel, and reap 

 fifteen : But he that sows one 

 bushel only on an acre, must not 

 expect, one time with another, to 

 reap twelve. 



The only insect that commonly 

 injures our pease, is a small brown 

 bug, or fly, the egg of which is de- 

 posited in them when they are 

 young, and the pods easily perfo- 

 rated. The insect does not come 

 out of his nes<, till he is furnished 

 with short wings. They diminish 

 11 



the pease in which they lodge to 

 nearly one half, and their leavings 

 are fit only for the food of swine. 

 The bugs, however, will be all 

 gone out, if you keep them to the 

 following autumn. But they who 

 eat buggy pease, the winter after 

 they are raised, must run the ven- 

 ture of eating the insects. 



If sown in the new plantations, 

 to which this bug has never been 

 carried, pease are free from bugs : 

 For the insects do not travel far 

 from their native place. There- 

 fore, care should be taken not to 

 carry them, as some are apt to do, 

 in seed, from older settlements. 

 Even in the part of an old farm, 

 near to which pease have not for 

 a long time, if ever, been sown, a 

 crop of pease are not buggy, if 

 clean seed be sown. There- 

 fore, in such places, one may 

 guard against this insect, by sow- 

 ing pease which are certainly 

 known to be clear of them. But 

 if the contrary be known, or even 

 suspected, let the pease be scalded 

 a quarter of a minute, in boiling 

 water ; then spread about, cooled, 

 and sown without delay. If any 

 of the bugs should be in the pease, 

 this scalding will destroy them : 

 And the pease, instead of being 

 hurt, will come up the sooner, and 

 grow the faster. 



All pease that are sown late, 

 should be steeped, or scalded, be- 

 fore sowing. They will be for- 

 warder. But pease should always 

 be sown as early as the ground can 

 be got into a good tilth, without 

 any silly regard to the time of the 

 moon ; by which 1 have known 

 some miss the right time of sowing, 



