82 



CULINARY OE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



usual allowance for seed is — for the frame 

 section, which includes most of the early 

 sorts, 36 peas per foot of line ; marrow- fats, 

 dwarf variety, 24 ; do. tall, and all of 

 similar habit, 12 ; blue Prussian, and 

 those of the same size, 18, i&o. The depth 

 for main crops should be, for the smaller- 

 sized pease, 2^ inches j for the larger kind, 

 3^ inches. 



To obtain pease early, various methods 

 have been tried : some sow in flat pots or 

 boxes in January, placing them in a cool 

 pit near to the glass, and transplant about 

 the middle of March; others in small 

 60-sized pots, so as to tTu:n out the balls 

 entire at planting ; some follow Bishop's 

 recommendation, and sow on thin nar- 

 row strips of turf, burying the turf under 

 them at planting; while many sow in 

 open drain-tiles fiUed with soil, some 

 on narrow pieces of board, and many 

 nail two boards together in form of a 

 triangular trough about 3 inches deep, 

 fill the same with mould, and sow thereon. 

 At planting, drills are drawn; these troughs 

 are set in them, the sides removed, and 

 the row of pease left undisturbed. The 

 following very excellent mode has been 

 long practised by Mr Drummond, gar- 

 dener at Blair-Drummond : — About the 

 beginning of February, when he com- 

 mences forcing peaches, "the border in- 

 side the house, on each side of the path- 

 way, is covered to the depth of 3 or 4 

 inches with cow-dung, gathered from the 

 park ; over this is laid 2 inches of decom- 

 posed tree-leaves, passed through a very 

 wide sieve, raking level, and beating 

 slightly with the back of a spade : upon 

 this the peas are sprinkled as thick as 

 they will lie together, and covered with 

 sifted leaf-mould 2 inches thick. In the 

 course of three weeks or so the pease are 

 fit for planting out, being from 4 to 6 

 inches long. A border on the south 

 aspect of a wall is chosen for the first 

 planting, the ground being dunged, and 

 dug deep and fine ; furrows are taken 

 out with the spade diagonally across the 

 border ; " the pease are then raised from the 

 border of the peach-house with a three- 

 pronged hand-fork," in large pieces, and 

 carried to the prepared drill ; " they are 

 then divided by the hand into small 

 patches, drawing pach patch longitudi- 

 nally, then placing it in the cut furrow in 

 the manner of planting box-edgings, let- 



ting the roots hang as perpendicular as 

 may be. By this operation very little of 

 the dung and leaf-mould falls from the 

 roots. The earth is then laid over and 

 pressed firmly to the roots, and another 

 furrow made, and drill-planted in the 

 same manner, 9 inches from and parallel 

 to the other, thus forming a double row. 

 A little earth is drawn up about them 

 with the draw-hoe, and they are staked 

 pretty closely, and a few fir-twigs are 

 stuck among the stakes to ward oiF sharp 

 frosts; these are removed when the weather 

 gets mild. Pease sown on the 1st of 

 February, and transplanted as described 

 above, are fit for gathering about the same 

 time as, or even sooner than, those of the 

 same sort sown on the 11th of November 

 preceding, in the open air, along the bot- 

 tom of a wall with a south aspect. Pease, 

 by this process, have been gathered on the 

 26th of May^ — certainly very early for such 

 a locality; indeed, unusually early for 

 any part of Scotland. Pease are readily 

 transplanted while under 4 inches in 

 height ; they may therefore be sown on 

 a warm border, or in a pit or frame 

 covered with glass lights in severe weather, 

 and transplanted in March. This, although 

 not a very general practice, has been in 

 use for above a century. Justice, in his 

 " British Garden Calendar," published 

 in 1759, recommends the practice, and 

 reasons on the advantage of it. Bishop, 

 in his excellent "Casual Botany," sug- 

 gested sowing them in November on nar- 

 row strips of turf,' and transplanting 

 them undisturbed at a more advanced 

 period of the season. Pease do not re- 

 quire this trouble ; indeed, it is question- 

 able whether the operation of transplant- 

 ing in the ordinary manner may not be 

 an advantage, as the greater or less degree 

 of injury to the long tap-roots causes 

 them to put out lateral ones, which, taking 

 a more horizontal direction, are nearer 

 the surface, and consequently influenced 

 somewhat by the sun-heat, besides having 

 the effect of causing the plants to send 

 out a greater abundance of roots, and 

 hence enabling them to secure a greater 

 amount of food. The London' market- 

 gardeners' practice is good, when they 

 throw up triangular ridges in autumn, 

 and sow a line of pease along the south 

 side, and another along the opposite 

 side, with a view to obtain an early crop 



