PEAS. 109 



height to which it grows. The two drills composing the 

 double row should be eight or nine inches apart, and about 

 three inches deep, the peas being sown from half an inch 

 to an inch apart on the row; the early, small-seeded varie- 

 ties being sown closer than the larger- seeded, tall-growing 

 varieties. Some of the English growers sow them in long 

 single rows, twenty or more feet apart, and not in a suc- 

 cession of rows, as they find that the outside rows, when 

 planted in the ordinary way, always bear more profusely 

 than the inside rows. They also stop or pinch off the lead- 

 ing shoots when the plants are about half the height to 

 which they usually attain, repeating the operation for two 

 or three times after the shoot has made three joints of 

 growth. This renders the plants more stocky, and makes 

 them produce much larger crops, but also has the effect of 

 retarding the crop, as the plants do not set their pods 

 freely until the stopping ceases. 



When the plants are from four to six niches high, they 

 should be earthed up, drawing the earth up lightly on each 

 side, in such a way as to have the plants standing in a 

 slight channel along the ridge. When the varieties grown 

 are such as to require staking, this operation should be done 

 before the plants have grown tall enough to fall over. The 

 brush stake should be set along the middle of the ridge be- 

 tween the two rows of plants, and outside of them on each 

 side a shorter row of brush. Where brush is not easily ob- 

 tained, stakes may be driven in, five or six feet apart, and 

 lines of twine of any kind, six inches apart, may be fasten- 

 ed to the stakes; but brush is the best when it can be had. 



If the weather is very hot and dry, mildew is apt to 

 attack the plants and destroy the crop. To destroy the 

 mildew, dredging the foliage with flour of sulphur is the 

 best remedy. To prevent it, water the rows copiously 



