KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



6 or g. Sow again early in March, and, then, once in a 

 month or three weeks, until the end of May. Too many 

 should not be sowed at a time, and less of the tall sorts 

 than of the low sorts. The manner of sowing peas is 

 the same in all cases. You make a drill with a hoe, three 

 inches deep, in ground as rich as you can make it, sow 

 the peas along not too thick, put back upon them the 

 earth that came out of the drill, and tread it down with 

 your feet pretty nearly as hard as you can, and then, 

 especially in winter time, keep a sharp look out after the 

 mice. When the peas come up, you ought, in all cases, 

 to hoe the ground nicely about them, and draw a little 

 earth to them even immediately, drawing up more and 

 more earth on each side as the plants advance in height, 

 until you have, at last, a little ridge, the top of which 

 would be six or seven inches above the level of the 

 ground ; this not only keeps them upright, but supplies 

 them with food for roots that will shoot out of the stems 

 of the plants. Peas must have sticks, and these sticks 

 must be proportioned to the height which the sorts re- 

 spectively generally attain. For the early-frame pea, two 

 feet and a half, or three feet, above the ground, is suffi- 

 cient j for the next in height, four or five feet. For 

 the tall sorts, from six to eight, and even nine 

 feet. The distances at which the rows are to be sowed 

 must be somewhat in proportion to these heights, the 

 smaller peas may stand at three feet apart, but the taller 

 ones, and especially the tall ones of all, ought to be at 

 six or seven feet apart at the least. You get nothing 

 by crowding them, nor do you get any thing by 

 sowing double instead of single rows of peas. If you 

 try it, you will find that a single plant standing 



