THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



589 



ever, province in favor of the bitter variety, 1000 i tlian enonfrh (or their families, if tliey ivould'only 



learn to econoiiiiz(! space, ill this pHriiculcir. But 

 purely, in towns, where iraniena are necessarily 

 s-rnHJI, Ilie clillerence brlween the product of a 

 well siipfKMled and culiivatcd vine, and one left to 

 Hprt-ad on ih*- irroimd, is well worth ascertaining. 

 Judifinir lioni my own observation, and the in- 

 lormaiioii obtained (rom others, I helieve that a 

 Kiiiijle vine supported by sticks (our or five i'eet 

 hijih, or hy a (rame ol' the sanie heiti;ht, which 

 may easily he made t>y four or five upriL^ht sticks, 

 about 15 inches apart each ivay, with a twine 

 strina; passed spirally around them five or six 

 limes, and tied at each end, woul(( produce nearly 

 or quite double the quantity that another vine 



bushels have been reserved, and 600 oC the (6r- 

 mer. There appears to me to he a want o(" prac- 

 lic«l information as to the best, most produc- 

 tive, and profitable varieties of wheat. Could you 

 not itiduce some of your t-xperienced corres((ond- 

 ents to I'urnish some itilbrmation on this matter of 

 imporiatice ? Too late now, (or this season ; but 

 would be valuable in future. I could mention ilie 

 names oC some gentlemen who could wt^ll furnish 

 eucli information ; but as the introduction of their 

 names hy an individual so hutnhle mi>/tit. look like 

 presumption, I leave the request lor others more 

 influential, and none more so than yourself. Ill 

 have not already exhausted your patience, and o 



ciipied loo much olyour space, you shall si>on again would which was left without support. Brid<^man 

 hear from me. A. Nicor.. | in his '■ You 1112: Gardener's Assistant," asserts 



that "a single vine has been known to produce 

 upwards of a bushel of fruit.'" At this rate, or 

 even at three pecks [ler vine, half a dozen of them 

 occupying no more than 32 square diet, would 

 produce an abundance lor a whole family of ordi- 

 nary size. This excellent vegetable is now seen 

 on almost every table, whereas it was hardly ever 

 used fifty or sixty years asjo. Then, it was general- 

 ly called "iove-apple," (roin ignorance, perhaps, 

 of itsothernarae. But even now, there are some 

 who are still very wide of the mark, in aiming to 

 hit its foreign title, " tomato," for they pronou'nce 

 the word as if it were spelt " chu-mar-tus-iz." 



The Indian pea is still more valuable than the 

 tomato , since it is not only prepared by many for 

 the table, but, as a marketable article, some of its 

 numerous varieties, of which I myseil know at 

 least twenty,* sell readily at an average price of 



GUI-TUUK OF THK TOMATO AND THE INDIAN 

 PEA. 



To the Editor of ttie Farmers' Register. 



Among the multitude of matters both in atrri- 

 culture and honicuiture whicli are well worth 

 knowing, but still unascertained, I have thought 

 it might be useful to invite, the aiieniion of our 

 brethren to two, wherein all of us are more or less 

 interested : I mean the culiure of the umia'o and 

 the Indian pea. Boih are favorite veiieiables on 

 all southern tables; and hoih, especirdly the lat- 

 ter, are very valuable lor other purposes. There 

 is no leguminous plant yei known to us, compara- 

 ble to the Indian pea lor leeding siock ; and many 

 farmers believe that, when fed in the dry state 

 they wi;l fatten eilhei horses, cattle, sheep or hogs 

 sooner than Indian corn. The ripe tomato i 



* Eight of this number bear the general natne of 

 '' crowder,'" from the circurastance of their growing 

 ,-„ 1 r 1 1 K II I ■ r , 1 "^ i SO much closer in the pod than the neas of a lono- 



greedily devoured hy all domestic owls, and cow. ,^ n^e ,he snap-bean, that each pefS Pod con° 

 will eat the vmes with grea av,d,ty_to say no- j tains usually about one-third more pel than aCquaU 

 thing ol the good medicinal qualities imputed to ly perfect pod of any of the long-shaped varieties. 

 the fruit. These are (acts, I helieve, which all I Of the crowders I have seen the following kinds, viz.: 

 will admit. Yet, strange to say, I have never yei > the black, the white with black eyes, the pale, yellow- 

 niet with any larmer or gardener who had ever I '^^ ^^'^y colored, the gray, the sugar, the purple hull, 

 taken the trouble, little as that would be, to ascer- *^^ '^'^'•^^ colored, commonly called the red tory pea, 

 lam how either lomaioes or peas could be render- ^"*^ ^^^ ^*'^'^"' reddish-yellow crowder. Of the other 

 ed most productive ; or which amon" our nume- rY';^'^"', ^^,°^ crowders,) I recollect four that are 

 rous varieties of the latter ripens the^soonest ; or ^^'"f%^'"! ^'^^'^ %''' if varying chiefly in size, the 

 which will yield most ; or how many busf'els p"r 1 1""^"'' ''""^ consKlerably largerthan any other pea 



acre may be calculated on as the average product 

 (irom ordinary land, oi any one variety of the 

 whole. , 



The usual management of the tomato is, to 

 rely on volunteer plants, which will certainly pro- 

 duce degenerated (ruit in a lew years. These 

 plants are set out in vacant s[)ots about our gar- 



have ever seen. There are two kinds which may be 

 called white, but less so than the four first named : one 

 has a pale greenish eye, and with us is called the 

 North Carolina pea; the other is of the same shape 

 and size, but has a reddish eye. Then there are the 

 white and red mottled pea, the cow pea, the black tory 

 pea, the small lady or gentleman pea, and the green or 

 Chickasaw pea, which is. the smallest of all, and the 



dens, where they are Sufiered to grow with little i ,1 ?"? whose vinesdo not run. Hence they are pre 

 or no culture, and without frames or sticks to sup- 

 port them. Now there are very lew if any of us 

 who do not know perfectly well, thaf the vines 

 when properly supported, in good garden ground, 

 and planted single, about lour or five feet apart, 

 according to the fertility of the ground, will grow 

 to the height of five or six (eet, and produce far 

 belter than in the common, careless, slovenly way. 

 But none of us, 1 believe, has yet troubled him- 

 self to ascertain how much more a single vine so 

 treated will yield, than one left as usu'al, almo'st 

 to take care of itself. Country gardeners, perhaps, 

 will deem this of little or no importance, lor they 

 always assign to the kitchen garden more ground 



ferable to all, where the purpose is to use pea vines as 

 a green dressing. Each of the above-mentioned va- 

 rieties has several local names, which I do not recol- 

 lect, or I would give them, as it might make all the 

 kinds, perhaps, better known than my general de- 

 scription. For instance, one of them (the gray 

 crowder) I remember to have heard called "the Jef- 

 ferson pea," although that gentleman probably knew 

 as little of Indian peas, as he did of many other agri- 

 cultural matters, having been nearly all his life engaged 

 in the public service. But the title, I presume, was 

 bestowed from that same degrading, contemptible spe- 

 cies of man-worship which has, at different times, 

 conferred the name of every president that we have 

 since had, on gentlemen's hats, boots and shoes, and 

 on ladies' caps, bonnets, shawls and ribands, &c. 



