4>64 On raising an early Crop of' Peas. 



make a little better than a quart sow the whole. The pots 

 are then filled up with the same mould, and placed in a cool 

 frame or vinery, protected from frost and the mice. In the 

 first week of March they will be about 6 in. high, and the 

 pots well filled with roots. Having made choice of a warm 

 spot on a south border, they are now transplanted by digging 

 a hole sufficiently large to receive the contents of each pot ; 

 care being taken not to disturb the roots, but to preserve the 

 balls entire. They are planted in rows, 4? ft. apart, and 2 ft. 

 in the rows, in the alternate manner, or that which some 

 gardeners term " breaking the lines." If the nights should 

 prove frosty, 1 cover each tuft with a flower-pot, and take it 

 off every morning, which prevents them from receiving the 

 least check. At the latter end of the month the pots are 

 taken away, and the peas are sticked, each tuft separately, 

 and inclining a little outwards at top, to allow the plants 

 plenty of room to spread. This method is quite applicable 

 to all dwarf-growing peas, which will never be found too 

 thick : the air having a free circulation round each tuft, they 

 begin bearing nearer the ground than those grown in the usual 

 way and in parallel lines, and I find them bear much better.. 

 Peas are in general sown too thickly in the drills, and by that 

 means they are drawn up so weak that they seldom produce 

 any pods till arrived at their full growth, and then only near 

 the top. . , 



-' From the 1st to the 10th of May I generally gather my 

 first dish of green peas ; and I find the above number of pots 

 will supply a family, upon an average, with three dishes of 

 green peas per week till the first or second week in June. 



The advantage of this method will, I think, be obvious to 

 your readers : by it the plants receive no check in the trans- 

 planting ; whereas in the common practice of transplanting 

 they receive a severe check, from which they do not recover 

 in less than a fortnight, and which, of course, may be con- 

 sidered. a fortnight lost at this season of the year ; nor indeed 

 can it be expected they will ever grow so fine as when they 

 receive no check. I never sow any peas in the open ground 

 till January ; and my kitchen-garden being rather on a limited 

 scale, I find this no inconsiderable advantage, as it enables 

 me to take a crop of winter vegetables off the very ground I 

 intend for my peas; particularly off the ground T intend for 

 my transplanted peas in March. I am, &c. 



C. V. R. 



Chichester, Jan. I. 1831. 



