342 On raising Early Crops of Peas. 



ference of pots of ten inches in diameter, inside measure. 

 These pots were nearly filled with a compost of a peculiar 

 kind, from the highly nutritive and stimulating qualities of 

 which, I anticipated much acceleration in the growth of my 

 plants, with the advantages of being able to remove them, at 

 the proper period, to the open ground, without having their 

 roots at all detached from their pasture, owing to the fibrous 

 organic texture of the compost. This was made of equal 

 parts of thin turf to which much lifeless herbage was attached, 

 and unfermented horse dung, without litter ; and a quantity 

 of the ashes of burnt weeds, containing, as usual, a good deal 

 of burnt mould, equivalent in bulk to about one-twelfth of 

 the other materials* The whole was reduced to small frag- 

 ments, and well intermixed ; and the pots were filled with it 

 within an inch of their tops. The Peas were then sown upon 

 the surface of the compost, and covered with common mould; 

 and the pots were placed in my Peach-house. In this they 

 remained till the plants were an inch high, when they were 

 removed into the open air ; but they were protected during 

 the night, for some time, and particularly when the character 

 of the evening indicated the probability of frost. 



In the last week of March, the plants were taken from the 

 pots and planted in rows in the open ground ; and I have 

 the satisfaction to observe, that very nearly the whole of the 

 compost adhered firmly to their roots ; and that their growth 

 subsequently was not apparently checked, in any degree, by 

 their transplantation. They were placed in rows contiguous 



* Equal parts of fresh soil with unfermented horse-dung, with litter, and a 

 small quantity of quick lime, or wood ashes, would probably operate as power- 

 fully as the compost above described. 



