322 



PEA 



PEA 



and suffer much in their crop. 

 The real causes of a crop not ri- 

 pening equally, are bad seed, poor 

 culture, and sowing too thin. If 

 the ground be ploughed but once, 

 it should be harrowed abundantly. 

 But on green sward ground, I think 

 it should be ploughed early in au- 

 tunui, and cross ploughed and har- 

 rowed in the spring. In old ground, 

 as it is called, it is no bad way to 

 plough in the seed with a shoal 

 furrow : It will be more equally 

 covered, and bear drought better ; 

 and 1 should think the crop would 

 ripen more equally. There is no 

 danger of thtir being buried too 

 deep, in our common method of 

 ploughing. The European farmers 

 think six inches is not too great a 

 depth for pease to be covered in 

 moist soils, and four inches not too 

 deep in clay. 



Changing the seed is a matter of 

 very great importance ; for pease 

 are apt to degenerate more ra- 

 pidly than almost any other plants. 

 Seeds should be brought from a 

 more northern clime ; for those 

 which ripen earliest are best. I 

 would change them yearly, if it 

 could be done without much trou- 

 ble or cost. Once in two or three 

 years is necessary. 



If weeds come up among field 

 pease, while they are young, they 

 should be weeded. But when 

 they are grown up, they will hin- 

 der the growth of weeds by their 

 shade, unless they are sown too 

 thin. Pease sown thick form so 

 close a cover for the soil, that 

 they cause it to putrefy ; they are 

 therefore called an improving 

 crop : But they also draw a greater 



proportion of their nourishment 

 from the air, than most other 

 plants ; for it is observable that 

 they continue their greenness long 

 after the lower parts of the stems 

 are dead to appearance. 



Garden pease are harvested by 

 picking them off as they ripen ; 

 but tield pease must unavoidably 

 be harvested all at once. They 

 should be carefully watched, and 

 harvested, before any of them are 

 so ripe as to begin to shell out. 

 Those "among them which are un- 

 ripe, will ripen, or at least become 

 dry, after they are cut or pulled 

 up ; and such pease, well dried, 

 are not commonly bad for eating, 

 though ill coloured. To dry them, 

 they should be laid on the ground 

 in small heaps, as light and open 

 as possible, the greenest of the 

 straw and pods uppermost. The 

 heaps should never be turned up- 

 side down, though rain should fall, 

 but they may be gently lightened 

 up, if they settle close to the 

 ground. This will be sufficient. 

 When thoroughly dried, they 

 should be carefully removed to 

 the barn, at a time when the air is 

 not dry, and thrashed without de- 

 lay. But if the thrashing must be 

 delayed, it is better to keep them 

 in a stack than in a barn. 



After winnowing, pease should 

 lie on a floor, three or four inches 

 thick, and air should be let into 

 the apartment, that they may be 

 dried ; which they will be in two 

 or three weeks, the weather being 

 generally dry. After this they 

 may be put into casks to keep. 



Our common method of pulling 

 up pease by hand, is too laborious. 



