114 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 
ordinary cultivation, but we must urge that what is done 
should be done well. A piece of mellow soil in an open 
situation should be prepared, by being well dug and rather 
liberally manured, in autumn or winter, and when the seed 
is sown this should be dug over again and the lumps 
broken to make a nice seed-bed ; then sow in a neat drill 
an inch and a half deep, and very soon after the plants 
appear put to them stakes of brushwood about four feet 
high, selecting for this purpose the neatest and most 
feathery pea-sticks you can find. Peas that are grown to 
eat may be supported roughly, but peas that are grown 
to be admired for their beauty should be supported in 
the neatest manner possible; therefore wire trellises and 
“rissels ”? made for the purpose may with advantage be 
employed, especially when the peas occupy a prominent 
situation in the garden, 
In the event of dry hot weather occurring early in 
the summer, sweet peas should be liberally watered two 
or three times a week, and if the natural soil is sandy or 
chalky it may be advisable to mulch the rows with half- 
rotten stable dung, which, if needful, can be concealed 
with a sprinkling of earth. To keep them flowering freely 
to the end of the season, all the pods should be removed 
upon becoming visible, and the plants, being thus relieved 
of the tax upon their energies the swelling of the seed 
would entail, will maintain their vigour more completely, 
and flower the more freely in consequence. 
The commonest sample of sweet peas, that may be 
bought for a penny at the nearest stall, is worth sowing 
and growing, and will give delight to all who see and smell 
the flowers. There are no bad sorts in cultivation, and so 
if the seed is alive, that is enough. But those who take a 
