PEAS AND POTATOES 



8s 



and plant to some other crop. (Note: Peas require 

 a cool season and do not do well in the hot weather 

 of mid-summer ; so they are an early-season crop 

 that permits of a following crop of something else — 

 late cabbage, celery, etc. Successional sowings of 

 peas should be made every ten days until June, thus 

 securing a regular succession of bearing vines. In 

 the North, dwarf varieties of peas are sometimes 

 sown in early August for a fall crop.) 



Field culture : Let me say that the gardener 

 who grows peas on a large scale for market or can- 

 ning factory, as a rule plants and handles his crop 

 somewhat differently from the smaller grower. For 

 one thing, he generally sows the seed with a hand 

 or horse planter, thus combining in one operation 

 the opening, seeding and covering of the furrows. 

 And because he uses a machine which does the cover- 

 ing all in one dose, he is apt to plant the seed more 

 shallow — so as to make sure that the pea shoots will, 

 without double-covering, be able to push through the 

 soil. He usually plants early peas about two inches 

 deep ; and, later, when the soil is drier, he plants 

 about three inches deep. 

 For another thing, he 

 generally spaces the 

 single rows farther 

 apart (about five feet 

 for the very tall-grow- 



mg varieties, less for inexpensive cord support for 

 the dwarf kinds), so peas, wire poultry-netting 

 that the vines may 



have room to sprawl on the ground and thus save the 

 great bother and expense of furnishing extensive areas 

 with something for the vines to climb on. Two or 

 three cultivations with horse implements are given, 



