The Cultivation of Vegetables 87 
down. When picking the pods, care must be taken to 
see that they are quite full— that is, that the peas inside 
have made their full growth. The appearance of the 
pods sometimes leads one to believe they are full when 
they are not. Several should be opened and examined, 
while the others may be very slightly pressed with finger 
and thumb. In picking, the basket should be suspended 
from the waistbelt, thus leaving both hands free — the one 
to hold the stalk, while with the other the pod is pulled 
off, preventing pulling up or breaking the plant. 
If peas are required for exhibition purposes, special 
means will have to be adopted to get the fine large pods 
quite full with the richly coloured peas which are seen 
on the exhibition tables in the largest horticultural ex- 
hibitions. 
When a good position has been selected in the garden 
for such Peas a trench should be taken out, 12 to 18 in. 
1 deep, and filled up to within 4 in. of the surface with a 
specially prepared soil, made up of 6 parts chopped loam, 
1 part leaf soil, i part wood ashes, and 1 part manure 
from a spent Mushroom bed or well-rotted horse manure, 
1 and to every barrowload a 6-in. potful of bone meal should 
be added. When the trench has been filled with this com- 
post the seed may be sown as soon as the soil has settled 
down, which it will do in a day or two. The peas should 
be planted 4 in. apart, and then covered over with 3 in. of 
the same compost. “ Staking ” should afterwards be done 
in the usual way, and when the plants have set two or three 
pairs of flowers the tops should be pinched out, thus allow- 
ing all the nourishment to be directed into these pods. It 
may, at first sight, seem a waste to do this, but the finest 
