378 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September IB. 
Peas, of the Prince Albert, or any other Charlton 
variety, sown about the 14th of June, beneath a west 
wall, on a light loam, deeply trenched, may almost in¬ 
variably be made to bear a good crop in October, if 
sheltered at night, and during mid-day, by a canvass 
screen or blind reaching from the wall to the ground. 
The'best mode of sowing is in a single row, about three 
feet from the wall. We adopt the mode of sowing and 
culture recommended by Mr. Knight in the extract with 
which we shall conclude these remarks, but, instead of 
covering the peas in the drill only with earth, we draw 
over them a little of the soil, then add a quarter-of-an-inch 
of fresh stable litter, and sprinkle a little of the soil over 
this, so that the seed is buried altogether not more than 
three-quarters-of-an-inch. The mulch keeps the moisture 
of the soil from evaporating away from the roots. 
Mr. Knight, in a paper read before the Horticultural 
Society so long since as 18 L3, says :— 
“ The secondary and immediate cause of this disease (the 
White Mildew), and of its congeners, have long appeared to 
me to he the want of a sufficient supply of moisture from 
the soil with excess of humidity in the air, particularly if 
the plants be exposed to a temperature below that to which 
they have been accustomed. If damp and cold weather in 
July succeed that which has been warm and bright, without 
the intervention of sufficient rain to moisten the ground to 
some depth, the wheat crop is much injured by mildew. I 
suspect that, in such cases, an injurious absorption of mois¬ 
ture, by the leaves and stems of the wheat plants, takes 
place; and 1 have proved, that under similar circumstances 
much water will be absorbed by the leaves of trees, and 
carried downwards through their alburnous substance ; 
though it is certainly through this substance that the sap 
rises under other circumstances. If a branch be taken 
from a tree when its leaves are mature, and one leaf be kept 
constantly wet, that leaf will absorb moisture, and supply 
another leaf below it upon the branch, even though all 
communication between them through the bark be inter¬ 
sected ; and, if a similar absorption takes place in the 
straws of wheat, or the stems of other plants, and a retro¬ 
grade motion of the fluids be produced, I conceive that the 
ascent of the true sap or organisable matter into the seed- 
vessels must be retarded, and that it may become the food 
of the parasitical plants which then only may grow luxuriant 
and injurious. 
“ This view of the subject, whether true or false, led me to 
the following method of cultivating the pea late in the autumn, 
by which my table has always been as abundantly supplied 
during the months of September and October as in June 
and July; and my plants have been very nearly as free from 
mildew. The ground is dug in the usual way, and the spaces 
which will be occupied by the future rows are well soaked with 
water. The mould upon each side is then collected, so as 
to form ridges seven or eight inches above the previous level 
of the ground, and these are well watered; after which the 
seeds are sowed, in single rows, along the tops of the ridges. 
The plants very soon appear above the soil, and grow with 
much vigour, owing to the great depth of the soil, and 
abundant moisture. Water is given rather profusely once 
in the week or nine days, even if the weather proves showery; 
but if the ground be thoroughly drenched by the autumnal 
rains, no further trouble is necessary. Under this mode of 
management the plants will remain perfectly green and 
luxuriant till their blossoms and young seed-vessels are 
destroyed by frost; and their produce will retain its proper 
flavour, which is always taken away by the mildew. 
“ The pea, which I have always planted for autumnal 
crops, is a very large kind, of which the seeds are much 
shrivelled, and which grows very high : it is now very com¬ 
mon in the shops of London, and my name has, I believe, 
been generally attached to it. I prefer this variety because 
it is more saccharine than any other, and retains its flavour 
better late in the autumn ; but it is probable that any other 
late and tall-growing variety will succeed perfectly well. It 
is my custom to sow a small quantity every ten days till 
Midsummer, and I rarely ever fail of having my table well 
supplied till the end of October, though sometimes a severe 
frost in the beginning of that month proves fatal to my 
later crops. 
“ The mildew of the peach, and of other fruit-trees, pro¬ 
bably originates in the same causes as the mildew of the 
pea, and may be prevented by similar means. When the 
roots, which penetrate most deeply into the soil, and are 
consequently best adapted to supply the tree with moisture 
in the summer, are destroyed by a noxious subsoil, or by 
excess of moisture during the winter, I have observed the 
mildew upon many varieties of the peach to become a very 
formidable enemy. Where, on the contrary, a deep and 
fertile dry loam permits the roots to extend to their proper 
depth; and where the situation is not so low as to be too 
much infested with fogs, I have found little of this disease; 
and, in a forcing-house, I have found it equally easy, by 
appropriate management, to introduce or prevent the appear¬ 
ance of it. When I have kept the mould very dry, and 
the air in the house damp and unchanged, the plants have 
soon become mildewed ; but when the mould, has been 
regularly, and rather abundantly watered, not a vestige of 
the disease has appeared.” 
FORSYTH MSS. 
Lieutenant Paterson returned to England in the sum¬ 
mer of 1785, and he seems to have made Montrose his 
chief residence, for most of his letters, during 1786 and 
1787, are dated from that town. During that time he ap¬ 
pears to have been suffering from the derangement of his 
liver, which had attacked him in India. Repose, however, 
was not agreeable to his tastes, and we find him wander¬ 
ing in the Highlands, and seriously entertaining a pro¬ 
posal made to him by a Mr. Riddle to visit Antigua and 
North America as his travelling companion. This does 
not seem to have been accepted, for in 1789, we have 
already observed, he published his travels in Africa, 
being at the time of publication in London; and by the 
end of 1791 he had sailed, as Captain in the 102nd 
Regiment, to our then newly-established convict settle¬ 
ment of Botany Bay, and we learn from the following 
letter, dated Norfolk Island, May 1st, 1792, both the date 
of his arrival, and that he had conveyed with him from 
England a wife. 
W. PATERSON TO MR. FORSYTH. 
I must now make a bargain, as there is a prospect of my 
being in these territories for some years : I shall only 
correspond with those that will correspond with me. The 
Pitt sails for the East Indies, and, though it is a round¬ 
about way, I take the chance of sending a few lines to all 
those who I consider are my friends, among them you rank 
as first. Since my arrival in this place, which was on the 
4tli of last November, I have been much pulled down with 
a violent rheumatism, but at present am in pretty good 
health; had that not been the case I should have written 
you a very particular account of this small spot. Of Port 
Jackson I can say nothing, but that most picople seem very 
much dissatisfied, particularly the Marines, and those that 
are lately returned to England. The soil of this island is 
very good, but from its formation difficult to cultivate; 
many parts of it are well watered, and produce Indian corn 
and wheat; and most kinds of garden vegetables grow re¬ 
markably well. The climate is by no means steady, having 
frequent gales of wind, and no safe anchorage near any part 
of it. Insects of different sorts are very destructive. Since 
my recovery I have begun my observations, and I think m 
the course of a few months (which will be nearly as long as 
my stay here) I shall complete the whole, which will be 
curious. The fish, birds, and insects, are numerous, and 
many, I am sure, new; the strata and formation of the 
