KITCHEN-GARDEN VEGETABLES. 
a dish, by taking the one or two most forward 
pods on each plant. 
As a protection from mice, the seeds should 
be planted deeper than is usual for summer 
crops; but the nature of the covering should be 
lighter. The young plant will push its way 
through a considerable depth of soil without 
injury. The seeds as soon as sown may be 
covered with some good soil, and then with 
several inches of sand. The sand would be 
easily enough worked by mice, but it forms 
too unstable a roof for their burrows, and by 
falling in renders their mining operations in 
vain. Chopped furze has been employed, but 
it is not quite effectual; for mice live snugly 
enough under furze bushes where old fallen 
prickles abound. Moistening the seed and then 
rolling it in powdered red-lead is by far the 
best preventive of mice attacks. 
affect the germinating powers of the seeds, 
whereas petroleum is liable to do so, and, in 
addition, acts as a preventive for a short time 
only. 
Before the young plants are well through the 
soil, it should be stirred and made fine, taking | 
care in doing so not to injure them. When they 
are a few inches high the soil should be drawn 
against them, and they ought to be sheltered 
by sticks, stronger, and placed closer together, 
on the north than on the south side. 
latter, indeed, the sticks should be as thinly set 
as is consistent with preventing the plants from 
falling, till their tendrils can lay hold of the 
It does not. 
On the 
483 
nected with the garden, may be taken advan- 
tage of, and various other means of shelter may 
be devised. In case of severe frost it is a good 
plan to mulch the Peas with litter, leaves, or 
other substances that will prevent the ground 
from being frozen. 
Sowing in Pots—Where pots can be spared 
for the purpose, they afford a very convenient 
means of forwarding an early crop, as they can 
be easily moved from place to place, and ex- 
posed to air and light. Various modes of sow- 
ing in pots have been recommended. Some 
dispose the seeds in a circle by the side of the 
pot, and in planting out, the ball is opened so as 
to allow of the circle of Peas being extended 
along the drill. In this way the plants started 
in an 8-inch pot would occupy nearly 2 feet of 
row. We, however, prefer pots about 3 or 4 
inches in diameter. In these the seeds should 
be sown equally, but not too thickly, and reared 
in a house or frame, but in all cases near the 
light, till the weather is fit for them to be 
more substantial sticks, intended for both shelter | 
and support. 
borders, the ground for early-sown Peas is 
In quarters, and sometimes in_ 
thrown up in ridges, the bases of which are 
equal to the distance which the variety would 
require between the rows, if sown on level 
ground. ‘Their height may be 2 feet above the 
bottom; the latter should be made lower at one 
end than the other, in order that water may 
not collect in it. In this way the roots of the 
plants will be free from excessive water; whilst 
the Peas, being sown about half-way up the 
slope, will be sheltered by the upper part of 
the ridge. If the weather and state of the 
ground permit, another sowing should be made 
in January, still choosing a warm sheltered 
situation. 
Early dwarf Peas are occasionally sown in 
the shelter of walls; but it is better not to do 
this if any other means can be adopted, be- 
cause the Peas interfere with the performance of 
operations necessary for wall-trees. The wooden 
planted outside. 
Mild weather should be chosen for this opera- 
tion, and it would be desirable that the wind 
should be in the south-west, for in that case 
there would be little danger of frost at night. 
If turned out of the pots, and planted by means 
of a trowel, with the balls entire and about 1 
foot apart, and the plants immediately staked, 
the latter will fan so as to fill the rows better 
even than if the balls were broken and extended 
so as to meet each other in the drill. A few 
spruce branches may be stuck in on the north- 
ern side for additional shelter. The plants 
should be earthed up in the usual way, and 
stopped above the third or fourth flower. 
Turves are sometimes substituted for small 
pots, and early Peas also move well out of large 
flat boxes in which they have been raised thickly. 
They may be shaken out and planted in deep 
narrow trenches, much as box edging is planted. 
The Parisian market-gardeners sow in the 
beginning of November, in frames, placed on a 
border with a south aspect. They allow about 
13 pint of seed to 52 square feet, and this 
produces plants sufficient for six or eight frames 
of that area. The seeds are covered very slightly; 
the sashes are put on, and when the plants have 
begun to push they are covered with a thin 
layer of fine earth. In the course of December 
the frames into which the young plants are 
to be transplanted are prepared, and the 
ground inside is dug out so as to be 18 inches 
below the sashes, the earth removed being 
pales of any enclosure, not immediately con-| placed against the outside of the frames. After 
