90 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



borne peas fifteen days sooner; but there were 

 but a very few of them, and those standing strag- 

 ling about ; and I was obliged to plough up the 

 ground where they were growing. In some cases 

 it would be a good way, to cover the sown ground 

 with litter i or with leaves of trees, as soon as 

 the frost has fairly set in ; but not before ; for, 

 if you do it before, the seed may vegetate, and 

 then may be killed by the frost. One object of 

 this fall-sowing, is, to get the work done ready for 

 spring; for, at that season, you have so many 

 things to do at once ! Besides you cannot sow 

 the instant the frost breaks up ; for the ground is 

 wet and clammy, unfit to be dug or touched or 

 trodden upon. So that here are ten days lost. 

 But, the seed, which has lain in the ground all the 

 winter, is ready to start the moment the earth is 

 clear of the winter frost, and it is uji by the time 

 you can get other seed into the ground in a good 

 state. Fall-sowing of seeds to come up in the 

 spring is not practised in England, though they 

 there are always desirous to get their things early. 

 The reason is, the uncertainty of their winter, 

 which passes, sometimes with hardly any frost at 

 all ; and which, at other times, is severe enough 

 to freeze the Thames over. It is sometimes mild 

 till February, and then severe. Sometimes it 

 begins with severity and ends with mildness. So 

 that, nine times out often, their seed would come 

 ufi and the plants would be destroyed before 

 spring. Besides they have slugs that come out in 

 mild weather,, and eat small plants up in the win- 

 ter. Other insects and reptiles do the like. From 

 these obstacles the American gardener is free. 

 His winter sf/s in ; and the earth is safely closed 



