80 An Account of obtaining very Early Crops of Green Peas, 



into the beds, or pots, in which they are to remain to bear fruit, 

 till the end of March, or beginning of April. The frames and 

 lights, were consequently out of employment in January and 

 February in the present spring; and I had also a heap of oak 

 leaves unemployed, which had been collected for the purpose of 

 making hot-beds, and to which use they have subsequently been 

 applied in March. With those a hot-bed was made in the middle 

 of January, into which pots, of about nine inches diameter, were 

 placed, at the distance of one foot from centre to centre. In each 

 of these pots a couple of dozen Peas were put in a circular row ; 

 and around them was planted a row of numerous slender twigs, 

 one foot above the surface of the mould. Thus circumstanced 

 the Peas grew very freely, and soon attached themselves by means 

 of their tendrils firmly to their supports ; and in the middle of 

 Marc h they had become fourteen inches high, and nearly in contact 

 with the glass roof, which had been previously raised a little. They 

 were then transferred to the open border, and some manure was 

 given, and very numerous sticks were employed to afford them 

 some degree of protection. This transplantation, and removal 

 from the pots, did not appear to injure them in any degree ; and 

 in the end of March many of their blossoms were so far advanced, 

 that they had shed their pollen. On the second day of April, a 

 frost of almost unprecedented severity occurred, having been pre- 

 ceded by an incessant fall of snow of forty hours duration ; and I 

 anticipated the total destruction of my crop of peas. I was, how- 

 ever, very agreeably disappointed in finding that little, or no greater 

 injury had been sustained by plants of sixteen, than by those of 

 four inches high : and on the 26th of April, when I last saw them, 

 they were at least three weeks earlier than any I had ever pre- 

 viously been able to raise ; and that, in a high and cold situation, 

 some of the pods were above an inch and a half long. 



An interval of nine inches was left between each pot of plants ; 



