156 VARIETIES OF PEAS. 



they are sold in the shops as bread is in this country. It is the sole busi- 

 ness of many in Egypt and Syria to fry peas for those who cross the 

 deserts. It is cultivated in China and most parts of the east. 



The white, yellow, and grey are the chief varieties of the common 

 pea, and the sub-varieties are innumerable. The colors are also much 

 intermixed. The white and yellow are the garden and field peas, the 

 first of which is the choicest, and is raised for eating green, while the 

 latter is allowed to mature. The names of the sub-varieties can hard- 

 ly be preserved, being arbitrary and derived from the names of per- 

 sons and slight circumstances. All may be distinguished by some dif- 

 ferences of tenderness ; but, if attention be paid to soil, situation, cul- 

 ture and time of sowing, most varieties will afford good crops. The 

 garden varieties are chiefly early and late. The first are more slender 

 and less productive, but are more hardy ; and others admit of being 

 forced, to afford the best luxury of early summer. The latter having 

 the full influence of the sun to mature, are large, more productive, and 

 they contain more saccharine matter; thus, as with many vegetable 

 products, they are cheapest when most nutritive, and within the means 

 of all. 



The period of vegetation is short, two crops being sometimes raised 

 within the season. The earliest crops are obtained by sowing the 

 seeds in a dry soil, last of Oct. In favorable situations and seasons, 

 they sustain the winter, and may be gathered about the first of April. 

 But they are a precarious crop, and do not always pay the cultivator; 

 they are therefore brought forward in hot-beds, when the demand and 

 price justify. 



Of the field varieties, the dark sorts are longest in maturing, and 

 their flavor is rankest. If sown in favorable places in autumn, and 

 cleared as soon as ripe, they may be succeeded the same year by a 

 crop of turnips. Peas are believed to improve the soil, particularly 

 for turnips and wheat. The rows should run north and south, and the 

 early crops should be slicked. The soil for early crops should have 

 been manured the year before, and should be light, dry and sheltered. 

 Fresh manure causes peas to run to herbage. The soil of late crops, 

 sown from March to July, should be moister and of more consistency. 

 The addition of marl, lime, or road-stuff is important. 



The mode much practiced in the early cultivation, is to sow cross- 

 ways on warm borders or ridges, 2 feet broad at the base. Drills are 

 drawn 1 inches deep near the bottom; the seeds being sown, are 

 carefully covered when observed to break ground. When sown last of 

 November, soot, mixed with slacked lime is strewn over the rows, or 

 finely sifted coal ashes, to prevent the attacks of insects. A light 

 stirring of the soil is a preventive. When a few inches high, they are 

 staked thick on the most sunny side, and a foot higher, but not too near, 

 the pea. 



