THE PEA. 



633 



drill, may be made after the first ; and a third sowing, which may be of 

 the early Charlton, may be made in March. This will suffice for the early 

 crops. The plants of the last two sowings need not be stopped, nor will 

 they require protection. 



A very convenient mode of obtaining an early crop is to sow the peas 

 in January in shallow pots, and protect them from frost by placing them 

 close to the glass in the front of a greenhouse, or under a frame, hand- 

 glasses, or hoops and mats ; and about the middle of March to turn them out 

 with balls into the open air in such situations as we have mentioned. Where 

 pots are scarce, the peas may be sown in rows on pieces of turf, or even 

 tiles, or pieces of boards covered with soil, brought forward on a slight hot- 

 bed, and afterwards deposited in the open ground ; or they may be raised 

 in shallow pots, and afterwards separated and transplanted singly in rows. In 

 short, there are numerous ways in which peas may be forwarded undercover, 

 or in very gentle heat, in January and February, so as to be ready to transplant 

 into the open ground about the middle or end of March. Peas may be 

 protected in the open garden by portable covers 

 such as fig. 377, which is thus formed : — Two 

 long and tw^o short poles of larch, fir, or other 

 straight wood, form each side ; the top piece is left 

 longer, to form handles at each end, and the Fw- 377- Cover for Peas and 

 sides are attached to the top with hinges, and crops. 

 kept apart by two removable stretchers. The whole is then covered with 

 sugar-mats, fastened on with laths. The covers are always kept on during 

 nights, and mostly opened or taken off during the day.— {6r. M. 1842, 

 p. 187.) 



1389. Portable walls for early crops of peas, &;c. As a substitute for a 

 brick wall a portable wall might be formed of very thick boards, or of double 

 boards ; the vacuity within to be filled up with charcoal, and protected from 

 rain by a coping, and from dropping out by a fixed bottom. Such a wall need 

 not be above three feet in height, and to render it portable, it may be made 

 in lengths of six feet or eight feet, with stakes to serve as strengthening 

 piers, and for readily fixing the wall to the ground. These hurdle walls, as 

 they may be called, would be found useful for a variety of purposes beside 

 forwarding peas ; such as ripening tomatos, capsicums, melons, &c. 



1390. The summer and autumn crops. The first sowing may be made 

 in the middle of March, and where peas are in demand, which they are in 

 almost every family, a sowing may be made every three weeks, till the 1st 

 of August. Those sown in the latter period will not produce a crop unless 

 the autumn is fine ; but if this should be the case, peas may be gathered 

 till December. In solving during summer when the ground is very dry, 

 after being dug and the drills drawn, the bottom of the drill ought be 

 thoroughly soaked with water before the peas are sown, and firmly rolled 

 after they are covered ; and throughout the whole summer, whenever there 

 is a continuance of drought, water ought to be liberally supplied. All the 

 late crops ought to be sown in the driest soil which the garden affords, in an 

 open airy situation, and sticked ; the last operation being essential to prevent 

 the plants of the late crops from rotting ; and as a preventive against this 

 and mildew, the seeds should not be sown too thickly. 



Gathering. The rows should be looked over daily and all those pods 

 gathered that are sufficiently advanced ; for if a single pod on a stem is 



