chap, vi.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 165 
December, to stand the winter in the open 
border, in order that they may produce a 
crop the following May or June. When 
forced, they are sown in pots plunged in a 
hotbed, and transplanted into the open bor¬ 
der in March; turning them out of the pots 
into holes made to receive them, without 
breaking the balls of earth round the roots. 
In some cases, they are fruited in pots 
placed in a greenhouse, or even stove; by 
which means, when it is thought worth 
while to incur the expense, fresh green peas 
may be had at Christmas. The main crop 
of early peas is, however, sown in February. 
A pint of small early peas will sow twenty 
yards of drills; each drill being one inch 
and a half deep, and the drills two or three 
feet asunder. The drills are marked out 
by stretching a garden-line lengthways along 
the bed, and then making a drill or furrow 
along it with a dibber; the earth is pressed 
firm at the bottom of the drill by the very 
act of making it, and the peas are then 
distributed along it, two or three to every 
inch, or wider apart, according to their size, 
and covered with soil, which is generally 
