PLANTING OF ALL SORTS 57 



Sweet peas are to be sown early, and we try to 

 get them in about with the first "eat" peas, though 

 I am not at all sure that it is an advantage to do 

 so. They deserve a little warmth in the soil, as 

 well as soil of extra depth — we work it and enrich 

 it full two feet, for results. No longer am I inclined 

 to have so many sorts — a half-dozen is probably 

 too many, though the descriptions of new sorts 

 each season are most seductive ! 



When I read the English literature about sweet 

 peas, I am almost afraid to sow any here. Who are 

 we recent Pennsylvanians, merely three or four 

 generations from the woods, to compete with soil 

 three feet deep, edged by lawns a thousand years 

 old! This climate, too, passing rapidly from frost 

 to near-boiling, is unkind to plants that love moist, 

 cool soil, and sunny cool days. Yet such as they 

 come to be, sweet peas in America are "not so 

 worse," and I'll keep along, always working toward 

 better care, plenty of husky fertilizer, and water, 

 water, water! The plants will not stay green to 

 the very ground, and we will fail to pick every 

 bloom before it spends itself in a seed-pod; but 

 we'll have at least some of the pleasure our British 

 friends gloat over. It seems practicable to go 

 down into the earth the best part of a yard with 

 the sweet pea trench, and to start with six inches 



