PEA. 



247 



Culture. — A moderately rich and dry soil is best suited 

 for tlie early pea and the dwarf varieties. The late peas 

 and the lofty growers do better in heavier soil, and a cool> 

 moist situation. The manure should be applied early the 

 preceding autumn, to be well reduced by the time the 

 crop of peas are ready to feed upon it. In poor ground, 

 fresh stable manure is better than none. If the ground^ 

 however, be extremely rich, there will be more Vines than 

 fruit. Plant the early kinds from the first of January to 

 March, and the later ones until early in April. Some 

 plant in December. Plant the seed in double drills (made 

 with a line, if you would have the garden look neat), and 

 six to nine inches apart, according to the kind, and two 

 inches deep. Then cover them an inch deep with mellow 

 earth. The rows of early peas should be three feet apart. 

 Champion peas should be four, and the taller kinds six. It 

 is a good plan to plant them ail six feet apart, and a row of 

 melon or cucumber hills between them, to come on after 

 the peas are gathered. The space between the melon 

 hills can be used for lettuce or radishes. Early peas 

 should be planted in the drills, about an inch apart. The 

 medium growers an inch and a half ; while for the tall 

 kinds, as Knight's Tall Marrow, and the Mammoth, two 

 inches are not two much. A quart of seed of these vari- 

 eties will plant not quite fifty yards of double rows, while 

 a quart of early peas will plant nearly seventy twice as 

 thickly. After the peas are about two inches high, hoe 

 them well, drawing the earth a little toward them, and 

 loosening the soil between the drills, destroying every 

 weed. E-epeat this once or twice, before brushing, which 

 should be done when the plants are six or eight inches 

 high. This may be done by sharpened branches of trees 

 prepared fan-shaped, and of a height proper for the pea to 

 which they are to be applied, or stakes may be driven 



