AUGUST. 
171 
branches back. The top of the wall I cover with mats, as I find the better the 
protection tender Roses receive the finer their blooms. As a proof of this, 
1 never saw finer Noisette and Tea Roses than are blooming here at the present 
time (June 5th). The Cloth of Gold has been budded four years, and this is 
the third year of its flowering. A plant of it budded on the Boursault at the 
same time, four years ago, has never flowered till this year. 
Elsenhcim Hall Gardens. V/illiam Plester. 
THE CULTURE OF THE PEA. 
Amidst the multifarious arguments lately put forth through various channels 
on the subject of Peas, their earliness, and merits, I do not perceive that any one 
writes aught about their cultivation, or of the influence which that is likely to 
have upon the growth and consequent quality. For this reason I have thought 
that a few remarks upon the subject will not be without interest at a time when 
so many minds are concentrated on it. That Peas are very much influenced as 
to early maturity, and good quality, by the kind of soil and mode of cultivation 
cannot reasonably be doubted, for seed out of the same bag may be sown on the 
same day on two different soils, and there will be several days’ difference in the 
time of their being ready to gather for table: for example, take any early Pea, 
and sow it on a warm, dry border, the soil of which is light, unmanured, and in 
fact rather poor than otherwise, and on the same day sow the same sort on a 
border of strong soil, deeply trenched and highly manured, and when they come 
to maturity, it will be at once understood how easy it is for cultivators to be 
misled as to the identity of sorts, and the wonder will cease that the same Pea 
will come so very different in different persons’ hands, or rather on the soils 
they have to work upon. I have grown Sangster’s No. 1 from the same sample 
3 feet high in one instance, and 6 feet in another; but in this latter instance, 
whatever I lost in earliness, was amply compensated for by a greatly increased 
produce; in fact, one could hardly believe them to be the same Pea, unless 
they were at the same time well aware of the influence which superior attention 
to the minutiae of cultivation will have upon the produce. 
It has been written by one of our great authorities (Loudon), that “ any 
countryman knows how to cultivate Peas,” which may certainly be true in a 
literal sense ; but it is as certainly false as to the inference supposed to be drawn 
from it, because cultivation implies more than merely digging the soil, drawing 
drills, scattering seed, earthing up and staking, which I presume to be the 
knowledge alluded to. 
The base of all success is founded on the subject of my remarks at page 145— 
viz., deep cultivation, coupled with liberal applications of manure. If possible 
the ground should be manured and deeply trenched during the winter, and in 
dry frosty weather it should be frequently turned about so as to expose as much 
of the soil, as possible to the influence of the atmosphere, avoiding, however, 
most carefully the moving the soil whenever there is even the slightest sprink¬ 
ling of snow on the ground. This is all that is necessary in the way of 
preparation of the soil. With regard to sowing, I am an advocate for single 
rows with intervening crops, and in this case the seed may be scattered mode¬ 
rately thick in the drills, but as, from want of space, we cannot always contrive 
to have them in single rows, and yet have to supply a large consumption, we 
shall find it most economical in the case of rows side by side to scatter the seed 
very thinly, so much so that in the case of some of the strong-growing large 
varieties of the Marrow Peas, they should be an inch apart in the drills, some 
