50 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



the end of October, and throughout No- 

 vember, December, and January. It is 

 of importance, also, in making this selec- 

 tion, that the hardier varieties should be 

 chosen. Hamilton's November prolific is 

 one of these. We have seen it, during 

 the two last winters, standing in an ele- 

 vated part of Dumfriesshire, when other 

 early sorts alongside of it were much 

 injured by the cold. In practice, we find 

 it is not always the crop first sown, how- 

 ever, that is first fit for gathering, even 

 within a few feet of the same altitude, 

 and a quarter of a mile of the same line 

 of latitude. Local circumstances, to a 

 very great extent, set aside in such mat- 

 ters the dicta laid down by those who 

 found the ripening of fruits or of garden 

 crops upon what has been called the 

 geographical distribution of plants. The 

 London market-gardeners, to whom early 

 pease are a remunerating crop, sow in De- 

 cember in rows, in borders under walls, 

 or by the sides of hedges three feet and a 

 half apart. The pease are never staked, 

 and the sorts preferred are, early Frame, 

 Bishop's new long-podded, Groom's superb 

 dwarf blue. Mr Baker, in " Gardeners' 

 Chronicle," 1848, p. 365, on this matter 

 observes : — " I generally sow in Novem- 

 ber, by a wall in the garden, and the pease 

 are trained to sticks in the usual way ; 

 but I have almost invariably picked first 

 from the field crop, although not sown 

 until February. It is very true that, 

 having a large space to collect the first 

 picking from, I gather a pod only here 

 and there ; but having found the earliest 

 and best-filled pods nearest the ground, 

 leads me to suppose that, by training on 

 sticks, the exposure to the atmospheric 

 air during night retards the growth, inas- 

 much as the heat given out by the earth 

 during that period is prevented from 

 assisting the growth of the pea by train- 

 ing ( them above the ground; and, from 

 the habit of the pea entirely covering the 

 surface, but little circulation of the air 

 takes place among them in the field. My 

 land is a dry, siliceous, and strong soil, 

 and radiates a considerable degree of heat 

 during the day, which also tends to the 

 early production of the crop." 



Pease, like all other crops grown in 

 rows or drills, wherever natural obstruc- 

 tions do not occur to prevent it, should 

 be sown in a direction from south to 



north, unless in the case of very early 

 crops transplanted at the bottom of a 

 south wall, when, for obvious reasons, the 

 direction should be reversed. The main 

 intention of placing crops in the former 

 direction is, that the sun may have free 

 access to every part of the ground between 

 the lines, and the plants themselves be 

 placed in the most favourable position in 

 this respect also. If placed in a counter 

 direction — namely, from east to west — one 

 side only would have the full advantage 

 of the sun, while the other would derive 

 little advantage whatever. Some draw 

 their lines obliquely, fancying thereby to 

 secure the early morning and late after- 

 noon sun in its greatest vigour, and cal- 

 culating, also, that its influence is thus 

 more equally diffused. In this, to a certain 

 extent, they are right ; but do they who 

 follow this practice truly calculate the 

 angle at which they place their rows, or 

 do they reconcile the angle to the latitude 

 of the place 1 or do they take into con- 

 sideration that the sun is either constantly 

 rising or falling in the horizon, so that 

 whatever angle they may adopt is diffe- 

 rently circumstanced as regards the sun's 

 rays every day 1 



As to distance between the rows, when 

 pease are sown in the usual manner — that 

 is, row after row throughout the whole 

 quarter — it may be taken as a general 

 rule that as much space should be allowed 

 between them as the sorts attain in 

 height ; — thus, a pea of two feet in height 

 should have tw T o feet from row to row, 

 and so on, up to Knight's tall marrow, 

 which attains a height of from eight to 

 ten feet — which latter should be placed at 

 least ten feet asunder. A much better 

 plan was, we believe, first recommended 

 by the late Mr Cobbett, who is said, by 

 those who seem to know, to have published 

 the best English Grammar of the day ; 

 and we can safely say he wrote the best 

 book on cottage gardens which has ap- 

 peared before or since. His plan with 

 pease was to sow in single rows, twenty, 

 thirty, or fifty feet apart, by which every 

 portion of the crop was fully exposed to 

 the sun and air — the crop hanging, in 

 consequence, profusely from bottom to 

 top. By this means, also, he secured 

 shelter to his other crops, as his pea crop 

 served the purpose of so many temporary 

 screens during the whole summer, at the 



