344 On Raising Early Crops of Peas. 



If heat was in any degree generated by the compost in 

 which the Peas grew, the escape of it was necessarily retarded 

 by the numerous sticks by which the ground was partially 

 covered ; * and little injury could have been sustained from 

 the shade of those, because the quantity of light, compara- 

 tively with the temperature of the air, and growth of the 

 plants, is very great after the vernal equinox ; and it is every 

 day increasing in power and influence. 



Another cause of the rapid growth of the transplanted 

 Peas has probably been the very favourable state of the soil 

 in which they have been placed, it having been turned over 

 with the spade immediately before transplantation took place: 

 for Peas never thrive well in strong soils, when such have 

 been compressed and soddened, in early spring, by much 

 moisture. But the chief causes of their very rapid growth 

 have, I believe, been the highly nutritive and stimulating 

 quality of the compost, and the presence of some degree of 

 additional warmth. For I have in former seasons derived 

 great advantage from placing a moderate quantity of nearly 

 similar compost immediately under rows of Peas, which have 

 been sown in the usual manner ; except that the seeds were 

 placed upon the surface of the soil, within which the com- 

 post had been buried, and covered by having had the soil 

 collected from each side to form a ridge over them. In all 

 cases where a compost of the kind I have described, is em- 

 ployed to accelerate the growth of dwarfish and early Peas, 

 it should be used in small quantities only; that the early 

 growth of the plants may be promoted, without excessive, 

 and consequently injurious, luxuriance being given. For 



* Wells's Theory of Dew. 



