January, several parallel rows may be extended under a good aspect, further from the fence. After January 
till the end of May, sow in an open situation. For the late crops, return again to a sheltered sunny border. 
Subsequent culture. As the plants rise from half an inch high to two or three inches, begin to draw 
earth to the stems, doing this when the ground is in a dry state, and earthing gradually higher as the stems 
ascend. At the same time with the hoe loosen the ground between the young plants, and cut down rising 
weeds. Early crops should be protected during hard frosts by dry straw or other light litter, laid upon 
sticks or brush-wood, but remove this covering as soon as the weather turns mild. If in April, May, and 
the course of summer, continued dry weather occurs, watering will be necessary, especially to plants in 
blossom and swelling the fruit, and this trouble will be repaid in the produce. Rows partly cut off may be 
made up by transplanting. This is best done in March. In dry weather, water, and in hot days shade, 
until the plants strike. All peas fruit better for sticking, and continue longer productive, especially the 
larger sorts. Stick the plants, when from six to twelve inches high, as soon as they begin to vine. Pro- 
vide branching sticks, of such a height as the sort will require ; for the frame and Leadman’s dwarf three 
feet high, for the marrow-fat and larger kinds, six or eight feet. Place a row of sticks to each line of the 
plants on the sunny side, that the attraction of the sun may incline the plants towards the sticks. Place 
about half the number on the opposite side, and let both rows stand rather wider at top than at the ground. 
Some gardeners stop the leading shoots of the most early crop when in blossom, a devise which accelerates 
the setting and maturing of the fruit. — Abercrombie. 
Field-peas. The pea is the most esteemed legume in field cultivation, both for its seed and haulm, and 
was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, and in this country from time immemorial, though its culture 
appears to have diminished since the more general introduction of herbage plants and roots ; and, except- 
ing near large towns for gathering green, and in a few places for boiling, the pea has given way to the bean, 
or to a mixture of peas and beans. There are various inducements, however, to the cultivation of peas in 
dry warm soils near large towns. When the crop is good and gathered green, few pay better. The ground 
after the peas have been removed is readily prepared for turnips, which also pay well as a retail crop near 
towns, and the haulm is good fodder. The varieties of peas cultivated in fields are numerous, but they 
may be divided into two classes, those grown for the ripened seed, and those grown for gathering in a green 
state. The culture of the latter is chiefly near large towns, and may be considered as in part belonging to 
horticulture rather than agriculture. 
The use of peas for soups, puddings, and other culinary purposes is well known. In some places por- 
ridge, brose, and bread are made of pea-flour, and reckoned very wholesome and substantial. In Stirling- 
shire, it is customary to give pease or bean biscuit to horses while in the yoke as a refreshment. The por- 
tion of peas that is not consumed as human food is mostly appropriated to the purposes of fattening hogs 
and other sorts of domestic animals, and in particular instances they are given to labouring horses in place 
of beans, but care should be taken when used in this way that they be sufficiently dry, as they are otherwise 
apt to occasion bowel complaints in those animals. For feeding swine the pea is much better adapted than 
the bean, it having been demonstrated by experience that hogs fatten more kindly when fed with this grain 
than on beans ; and what is not easy to be accounted for, the flesh of swine which have been fed on peas, it is 
said, will swell on boiling, and be well tasted, whilst the flesh of the bean fed hog will shrink on boiling, the 
fat will boil out, and the meat be less delicate in taste. Peas straw cut green and dried is reckoned as nou- 
rishing as hay, and is considered as excellent for sheep. 
The diseases of peas are few, and chiefly the worm in the pod, and the fly on the leaves and flowers. 
They are also liable to be mildewed or blighted. None of these evils, however, are very common, and there 
is no known method of preventing them but by judicious culture. 
In the sowing of any particular sorts of seed, they should be carefully looked over while in flower, in 
order to draw out all such plants as are not of the right sort, which, if left to mix, will degenerate the kind. 
As many rows as may be thought sufficient to furnish the desired quantity of seed should be marked out, 
and left till their pods turn brown and begin to split, when they should immediately be gathered up with 
