544 IBicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



want tliem, I pick all off for a time. I reckon on them to serve 

 the table every clay all through the driest and hottest part of 

 the summer, from July to September ; and I have had most 

 wonderful crops from them, when treated in the above manner. 

 I have never heard a single person say but that they were the 

 best-flavoured of all peas. It is of no use to think of having a 

 fine lasting crop of peas, if there is not a thoroughly good pre- 

 paration made for them. If a good preparation be made for 

 them, and the ground fresh, that pest the mildew will not 

 trouble much, for it is nothing but drought and poverty that 

 causes the mildew in late crops. 



Beans, every practical man knows, like a good holding loam," 

 and can be much forwarded, as well as peas, by being sown in 

 pans, in frames, vineries, peach-houses, &c., and then planted 

 out in a warm border or on the sides of ridges or sloping banks. 

 The best early bean I am acquainted with is the Mazagan, to be 

 succeeded by the Wonder Long Pod and Windsor Broad Bean. 

 Cutting off every alternate row, just as they are coming into 

 bloom, Avhich rows should not be planted nearer than 3 ft. 

 ajiart at first, makes a very great improvement in the crop left ; 

 and those that are cut down break out again and make a good 

 successional crop. The black dolphin is the worst enemy I 

 know of amongst beans, and attacks them about the time they 

 come into bloom. It is easily got rid of with a garden engine 

 and soap-suds, which will clear every living one off; but, if not 

 well attended to, oftentimes the crop is much injured by this 

 pest. 



The Onion is one of the most wholesome and useful of all 

 vegetables. It also requires the ground to be well trenched, 

 laid in rough ridges all the winter, and forked and tumbled over 

 as roughly as possible every frosty morning with a strong fork 

 or pick, which sweetens it and kills all vei-min. Sow in drills 

 1 ft. apart, and not until the ground is thoroughly pulverised ; 

 choosing a fine day to level down, any time between the 1st and 

 20th of March; and even then, if your ground is not in 

 thorovighly good condition, defer it for another week : but you 

 need not sow them on Valentine's day, because you heard your 

 grandfather say that he had always done so, let the wind blow 

 whichever way it might. No better sorts of onions do I know 

 of for general purposes throughout the year, than the Deptford, 

 Reading, Neio White Globe, and Old Brown Globe, or James's 

 keeping. The Two-bladed is a beautiful onion for putting in 

 the earliest in the spring ; but it is not much known except in 

 the London market-gardens. The Silver-skinned is the best for 

 pickling. Sow the seeds in the drills with manure, charcoal- 

 dust, bone-dust, or well-pulverised night-soil, which are all fine 

 manures for growing crops of onions. Take care to run the 



