176 KITCHEN GARDEN. 
middle of August, thus ensuring a supply of successive 
crops of delicate green peas. For the latest crops, the 
Knight’s Marrowfat, Hair’s Dwarf and the Blue Prussian 
are among the best. Peas are sown in rows from three to 
five feet asunder, according to the height which the different 
sorts are known usually to attain. As they grow up, the 
earth is drawn to the roots, and the stems are supported 
with stakes, practice which, in a well-kept garden, is 
always advisable, although it is said that the early varieties, 
when recumbent, arrive sooner at maturity. When germi- 
nating, or when just rising through the ground, peas are 
greedily devoured by sparrows and other small birds. 
Threads of white worsted spread along the lines of the 
young peas frighten the depredators fully better than scare- 
crows or strings of feathers; but perhaps the simplest and 
most effectual remedy is to throw over the peas a slight 
covering of soil, for by the time the young plants have pene- 
trated this they are beyond the attack of the birds. 
’ The early crops come into use in May and June, and, 
by repeated sowings, the supplies are prolonged to the be- 
ginning of November. Peas grown late in autumn are 
subject to mildew, to obviate which, Mr. Knight has pro- 
posed the following method: The ground is dug over in 
the usual way, and the spaces to be occupied by the future 
rows of peas are well soaked with water. The mould on 
each side is then collected so as to form ridges seven or 
eight inches high, and these ridges are well watered. On 
these the seed is sown in single rows in the beginning of 
June. If dry weather at any time set in, water is supplied 
profusely once a week. In this way, the sap which it pre- 
pared in the summer is expended in the autumn; the 
plants continue green and vigorous, resisting mildew, and 
aot yielding till subdued by frost. 
