AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 157 



ter, laid upon sticks or brushwood ; but remove the cover- 

 ing as soon as the weather turns mild. If, in April, May, 

 and the course of the summer, dry woather occurs, watering 

 will be necessary, especially to plants in blossom and swell- 

 ing the fruit ; and this trouble will be repaid in the produce. 

 Rows partly cut off may be made up by transplantinor. In 

 dry weather, water, and in hot weather, shade, until the 

 plants strike. All peas fruit better for sticking, and continue 

 longer productive, especially the larger sorts. Stick the 

 plants when from six to twelve inches high, as soon as they 

 begin to vine. Provide branchy sticks of such a height as 

 the sort will require ; for the frame and Leadmans dwarf, 

 three feet high ; for the Charlton and middle-sized, four or 

 five feet ; for the marrowfat and larger kinds, six or eight 

 feet ; for the rouncival, and for Knight's marrow-pea, nine or 

 ten feet. Place a row of sticks to each line of peas, on the 

 most sunny side, east or south, that the attraction of the sun 

 may incline the plants towards the sticks. Place about 

 half the number on the opposite side, and let both rows 

 stand rather wider at top than at the ground. Some garden- 

 ers stop the leading shoot of the most early crop when in 

 blossom ; a device which accelerates the setting and maturity 

 of the fruit. 



To forward an early Crop. ' Soav or plant in lines from 

 east to west, and stick a row of spruce-fir [or other evergreen] 

 branches along the north side of every row, and sloping so 

 as to bend over the plants, at one foot or eighteen inches 

 from the ground. As the plants advance in height, vary the 

 position of the branches, so as they may always protect 

 them from perpendicular cold or rain, and yet leave them 

 open to the full influence of the spring sun. Some cover 

 during nights and in severe weather with two boards, nailed 

 together leng/hwise, at right angles, which forms a very se- 

 cure and easily-managed covering, but excludes light. A 

 better plan would be to glaze one of the sides, to be kept to 

 the south, and to manage sich row-glasses, as they might be 

 called, when over peas, beans, spinage, &c., as hand-glasses 

 are managed when over cauliflower ; that is, to take them 

 ofTin fme weather, or raise them constantly or occasionally 

 by brickbats, or other props, as the weather and the state of 

 the crop might require.' — Loudon. • 



Management of a late Crop. The best variety for this 

 purpose is Knight's marrow-pea, which may be sown at in- 

 tervals of ten days from the beginning to the end of June. 

 14 



