THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 47 
it is not only important to obtain the best sorts of peas, but 
tbe best strains or stocks of tbe best varieties. 
The Soil. — Peas are highly nutritive, and, when properly 
cooked, are as wholesome as any vegetable in our gardens. 
Being richer in phosphates than most other table vegetables, 
they are particularly adapted for invalids, and especially such 
as are deficient of nervous energy, the mineral constituents of 
peas ministering directly to the nourishment of the nervous 
system. The inorganic elements amount to about three per 
cent, of the entire bulk in ripe peas, but in green peas some- 
what less. The principal inorganic elements are potash and 
phosphoric acid, and therefore it is only in soils rich in potash- 
salts and phosphates, that peas can be grown profitably, unless 
by liberal and systematic manuring the deficiency of the soil in 
those essential elements is compensated for. The importance 
of keeping the soil rich in these ingredients will be understood 
when we say that one bushel of seed peas contains about 
the following quantities of the several elements, namely, of — 
Phosphoric acid 
9 
ounces 
Lime 
2 
? > 
Magnesia 
ii 
Potash 
10 
The pea will thrive in any soil of average good quality, 
provided it has good cultivation. The ground should be in 
every case deeply dug, and for all the second early and main 
crop sorts be liberally manured; the best mode of employing the 
manure being to lay it at the bottom of the trench. For the 
first early sorts it is advisable to manure less liberally than 
for those that come into pod later in the season, because a 
luxuriant growth is antagonistic to precocity of production, 
and in the case of the first earlies, the object of the cultivator 
is to gather a dish at the earliest date possible, even if 
the plants are less luxurious, and therefore less productive 
than they would be if encouraged by heavy manuring. It 
should be understood, however, that although manuring does 
somewhat delay the season of production, it is scarcely possible 
to manure too liberally for robust-growing sorts of fine quality; 
for although the first gathering from them may be obtained 
less early by a week or so than from the same sorts grown on 
poor ground, yet in the end high cultivation will pay the 
