THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 49 
I 
sorts may be sown rather thickly, but tall robust kinds should 
be fully two inches apart. In districts favourable to early 
production the first early sorts are sown in November and 
December, but in places where the soil is deep and damp, and 
the climate unfavourable, it is sheer waste of labour to sow 
until the middle of February at the earliest, and, generally 
speaking, the middle of March is as early as the seed can be 
sown advantageously. The earlier the better everywhere, of 
course, but a sowing of peas made a week too soon will scarcely 
pay for the ground it covers, hence in cold districts experienced 
cultivators wait for favourable weather, without respect to the 
almanac, for the good reason that a late sowing that has had 
no check will in the end overtake and surpass in productiveness 
earlier sowings that have been two or three times pinched by 
frost, or dessicated by the east winds. Sowings of the second 
early and main crop sorts should be made from the middle 
of March to the end of May, according to requirements, and 
if these are sown in trenches prepared as for celery, at a 
distance of about fifteen feet apart, they will produce double 
the crop, and last double the time in bearing than the same 
sorts would if sown upon the level in a close piece with only 
enough space between for gathering. 
First Early Peas are frequently unprofitable in small 
gardens and on heavy damp soils. But where circumstances 
are favourable, they pay in proportion to their earliness, and 
in districts where gardening is carried on with spirit, there is 
something like a race amongst the gardeners for the first 
gathering of green peas ; During upwards of twenty-five years 
trial culture of peas, with, on many occasions, more than fifty 
varieties on the ground at one time, we have only once 
gathered a dish worth having in the month of May. This 
occurred in the year 1868, when the spring was characterized 
by unusual heat and drought, and the late peas failed entirely. 
In that year we gathered on the 23rd of May good dishes of 
Sutton s Ringleader, Tabers Perfection , Sutton s Champion, 
Poynters Early , and Dicksons First and Best. On our cold 
clay, first early peas do not pay as they ought one year in 
five, but second early and late sorts, and especially marrow peas 
of the finest quality, are a splendid sample, and last a long time. 
There are many ways of expediting the growth of first early 
peas without exposing the crop to the destructive winter 
weather. One good method is to sow the seed on turves, laid 
E 
