58 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



From experiments made in the London Hor- 

 ticultural Society's garden on the following 



peas, their period of coming to perfection wag 

 ascertained as follows : — 



Cormick'3 Prince Albert, 

 Warwick, . , . . 



Sown January 4, 

 ^^^ January 4, 



Came into flower April 1. 

 AprU 13. 



Pods gathered from May 14. 

 May 28. 



— These are sub-varieties of the early frame, differing only in time of coming to bear. 



Prince Albert, , 

 Bishop's early dwarf. 

 Early race-horse. 

 Shilling's grotto, 

 Dwarf green marrow, . 

 Blue Prussian, . 

 Matchless marrow, 

 Lynn's wrinkled marrow, 

 American marrow. 

 Blue scimitar, 

 Bedman's blue imperial. 

 Flack's Victoria, 

 Victoria marrow, . 

 Auvergne, . 

 Groom's superb blue, . 



Sown March 28, 3 feet in height. Pit for use June 19. One of the earliest of peas. 



9 inches . 

 3 feet 



3 feet 

 3. feet 

 2 feet 

 3^ feet 



4 feet 



2 feet 



3 feet 



3 feet 

 2^ feet 

 fifeet 



4 feet 

 2 feet 



June 26. Very inferior sort. 



June 29. An inferior var. of early frame, 



June 29. An excellent pea. 



July 10. A good cropper. 



.luly 10. A good bearer. 



July 17. An excellent large pea, and productive. 



Aug. 1. Good late sort. 



July 17. Good pea, and abundant bearer. 



July 25. A good bearer. 



July 20. A good pea, and excellent bearer. 



July 17. Large pea, and good bearer. 



July 25. Large pods. 



July- 17. An excellent bearer. 



July 17. A fine pea, and abundant bearer. 



— The heights given above are those to which they attained in the Society's garden. 



The following experiment regarding the pre- 

 cocity of the following peas was made in the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society by Mr 

 Thompson. Three varieties of early frame, 

 amongst which was the true early frame from 

 Paris, were sown in continuous rows on March 

 13. They proved to be the same, and were fit 

 to gather June 9. Early Kent, fit June 2. 

 Warner's early emperor, fit June 4. The two 

 last are varieties allied to the early frame, the 

 early Kent differing from it in being a week 

 earlier, and not so strong-growing. "War- 

 ner's early emperor is not quite so early as the 

 early Kent, and its growth is intermediate be- 

 tween the early Kent and the early frame. 

 Fairbeard's early surprise was sown April 23, 

 and was fit to gather June 27 ; but the early 

 frame, sown at the same time, was fit June 19. 

 Fairbeard's is therefore eight days later than 

 the early frame, and consequently, according to 

 the foregoing statement, it would be a fortnight 

 later than the early Kent." This pea, therefore, 

 cannot rank amongst the earliest, but wiU hold 

 a good place in the second early section along 

 with the old Charlton, to which it seems re- 

 lated. 



The following six varieties of dwarf pease 

 will form a good succession, and will be found 

 suitable for a small garden, or where ground is 

 scarce : — The true early frame, Fairbeard's early 

 surprise, Groom's superb dwarf blue, blue Prus- 

 sian, Milford marrow, and Knight's dwarf 

 marrow — sown in the order in which they 

 stand. 



Insects emd diseases. — The greatest enemy to 

 the pea tribe is the pea weevil. This destruc- 

 tive family of insects, the weevils, are enough of 

 themselves to eat up the whole vegetation of 

 the globe. M. Sohouherr, a celebrated Swedish 

 entomologist, spent thirty years in investigating 

 their economy ; the results of his investigations 

 have been published, and occupy no less than 

 7000 pages, octavo, in print. Of this formidable 

 host we have between four and five hundred 

 species existing in Britain. Two of these, Sitona 

 lineata, the striped pea weevil, fig. 7 ; and Sitona 

 crinita, the spotted pea weevil, may often be 

 detected eating the young leaves and stems as 



STRIPED PEA WEBViL. 



soon as they appear above the ground, parti- 

 cularly in dry hot weather. 

 These pests will, in general, 

 be found in full operation 

 in June. The remedies 

 suggested by the writer of 

 a series of articles on en- 

 tomology in " The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle " are 

 worthy of notice. "Any 

 remedies, therefore," he 

 says, "which we can sug- 

 gest, must have for their ob- 

 ject either the destruction 

 of the perfect beetle, or the 

 protection of the plants — 

 neither of which is easy. 

 As to the former, we scarcely think that any 

 trap could be employed into which the insects 

 would creep at night (like damp grass, into which 

 the wire-worm creeps; orbits of potatoes put 

 into the ground, to which, as food, the same insect 

 is enticed) ; possibly, however, dry hay laid along 

 the rows might entice them into it as a retreat. 

 Another means of destruction suggests itself, in 

 connection with the habit of the insect of falling 

 to the ground on being surprised. A bag-net 

 about 2 feet long, and with one side flat, so as 

 to allow of its being placed on the ground, close 

 to the sides of the rows of the pease, would, we 

 think, be serviceable. This might be run along 

 the rows, the plants being slightly swept over 

 by a switch held in the right hand, the handles 

 of the bag-net being held in the left hand; or, 

 perhaps, by merely running the net along or 

 across the rows, they might be jerked into it. As 

 to the protection of the plants, soot and pounded 

 lime have been suggested to be sprinkled over 

 them, previously wetting them by a, watering 

 machine. In this respect the same kind of 

 remedies jnust be used as have been proposed 

 against the turnip flea-beetle, having for their 

 object the rendering of the plant disagreeabUe 

 to the insect by a coating of matter offensive to 

 its taste ; or by forcing forward the gi-owth of 

 the plant as quickly as possible. We may also 

 suggest the possibility of advantage resulting 

 from drawing a cloth covered with pitch or tar 



