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U January 18 , 1913 . 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
49 
[i 
EARLY VEGETABLES FROM SEEDS.-IIL 
!E, 
Peas. 
... Of all vegetables raised annually from 
^seed perhaps none is more appreciated than 
the first dish of peas. At one time good 
LIS peas in May re>alised high prices, as much 
as Is. 6d. to 2s. per pound in the pods, but 
, in recent years larger supplies have tended 
to reduce the price. Some seventeen or 
‘ eighteen years ago, Mr. Norman Davis, one 
of the earliest cultivators of peas imder 
glass for market, secured handsome returns 
when he commenced growing high-class culi- 
X nary peas in the huge house in his nursery 
= at Framfield. 
The best results are obtained by sowing 
i in the natural soil of the floor of a cold 
house, the soil having been previously 
double-dug and manured. Mdiere lime is 
1 -: deficient, a liberal dressing of powdered 
chalk should be applied, or a smaller quan¬ 
tity of freshly slaked or even air-slaked 
JJf 
’ I find, however, as I believe Mr. 
‘ Davis did, that where the peas are grown 
^ annually in the same soil, no matter how 
UP thorough the preparation, the crop after a 
II(f time falls off, and the individual plants 
:ci: are liable to become affected. Eel-worm 
R®*' also makes serious inroads on the energies 
of the plants, so that it is well to give the 
:sfl£ soil a rest every other year. I might say 
this deterioration is less marked on heavy 
than on light soils. 
Varieties of moderate height, as Gradus, 
Early Giant, and Ideal, are most suitable. 
Ideal is the earliest pea I am acquainted 
with apart from the very dwarf peas. It 
bears at a lower node than other peas of 
the type. In structures with sufficient 
I head-room, Duke of Albany, Centenary, 
and Harvestman may be included to pro¬ 
long the supply. Two good second early 
{CE pears of moderate height are Superlative 
and Discovery. 
Selection of stock is important in the case 
of peas in the open, but doubly so when 
the seed is required for cultivation under 
glass. I know of no vegetable, excepting 
perhaps beet, which deteriorates so rapidly 
under indiscriminate methods of seed-sow- 
^ ing as the pea. The high price of good 
J stocks is well repaid in the increased 
return. 
A short time ago we had a number of 
rows of Duke of Albany grown from seed 
serrt* saved from the crop of one row. One-half 
itisi rows was grown from seeds saved 
from selected pods, and selected plants 
^ bearing in pairs. In this set every pod 
was rejected which had not produced ten 
peas per pod. The remaining rows were 
grown from seed harvested after the se¬ 
lected pods had been gathered. 
No one would have taken them to be 
the same stock, although every plant in 
the first instance sprang from seeds of one 
^ pod, and only a year or so before. Vnceas- 
ing selection and re-selection has to go on 
u standard is to be maintained, and 
henc^ the difficulty—^the impossibility—of 
placing large quantities of high-class seed 
,0 the market at a low price. 
We make our first sowing in a span 
house in the last few days of the year, the 
rows being three feet apart. Tall varieties 
^11, of course, need more space. Sow 
thinly in drills six inches wide, and the 
individual seeds two and a-half to three 
inches apart, and cover half an inch deep. 
AVe usually rake in a dressing of superphos¬ 
phate and wood ashes previous to drawing 
the drills. 
The spaces between the rows are filled 
up with three rows of a small cabbage let¬ 
tuce pricked out about the middle of 
January from seeds sown in the last half 
of November in a house with a night tem¬ 
perature of 45 to 55 degrees. 
Those who have pits and frames suffi¬ 
ciently deep may sow dwarf kinds in rows 
eighteen inches to two feet apart or the 
seeds may be sown in pots, and subsequently 
planted out in the frames. 
For planting outdoors I find the best tiiii€5 
to sow is about the first week of February, 
sowing six or seven seeds in a large 60 or 
54-sized pot. If sown earlier, the plants 
are apt to become too large before the 
weather permits safe planting out, except 
it is in those parts of the country where 
the winters are comparatively mild. The 
balls may be planted out unbroken one foot 
apart. Unless division of the roots is done 
very carefully, and the weather is favour¬ 
able, the method of placing the plants out 
separately a few inches apart is liable to 
give the peas a serious check. 
Peas in the early stages will not be 
hurried, and if growing in heated houses, 
only sufficient heat should be applied to 
keep out frost. Ventilation, too, must be 
attended to, or a close, damp atmosphere 
will bring about mildew and mould. 
Turnips. 
These are not in great demand, but a few 
may be sown in drills, six to eight inches 
apart toward the end of January or early 
in February, and intercropped with 
radishes. Thin when large enough to six 
or eight inches apart. The smaller dis¬ 
tance is sufficient for the French Long 
AVhite, which is the best for the earliest 
sowing. The February sowing may be the 
Red and White Milan, v/hich need a little 
more space. The beds for these would l^e 
similar to those used for lettuce at this 
date. Tuimips are sometimes disappoint¬ 
ing. Unless carefull}^ ventilated and 
watered, they are apt to bolt in the early 
sowings. 
Vegretable Marrows. 
Where sufficient room exists a few of 
these may very well be grown if variety is 
wanted. There appears to be a fair sale 
for them in June. The bush kinds are the 
best for frame culture. Seeds can be sown 
early in February in a mean temperature of 
60 degrees in single pots, and the plants 
placed out at the end of the month on a 
mild hotbed, one to a sash, in a heated 
pit, and planting in good soil. The flowers 
may need fertilising at this time of year, as 
is sometimes the case vdth later sowings 
planted outside with some protection early 
in the season. Bumble-bees appear to be 
the chief agents in pollinating the flowers, 
and there are few of these about in the 
spring. 
From want of oversight, it happens some¬ 
times that all the earliest embryo fruits rot 
for want of attention in the way of pollina¬ 
tion. The vari^y Jender and True is as 
useful a vegetablf^ marrow as any to grow 
for the earliest siij^plTS. v 
Reading. ^ F. Drew. 
ERICA LUSITANICA. 
This erica, better known as E. codonodes, 
is undoubtedly the most beautiful of the 
tree heaths, and is especially valuable from 
its habit of flowering in the depth of win¬ 
ter. Before the old year has departed in 
Devon and Cornwall its earliest buds begin 
to show white, and before the conclusion 
of January, in the south-west, it is gene¬ 
rally in full flower. Large specimens pre¬ 
sent a charming sight when in full blos¬ 
som, appearing from a little distance like 
tall pyramids of white, faintly tinged with 
pink, six feet or more in height. The 
character of growth of this heath is erect, 
and the upright sprays, studded with a 
profusion of drooping, white, elongatetl 
bells, have the appearance of snowy plumes 
when cut. The individual blossoms, when 
closely examined, show a suspicion of pink, 
but this is scarcely apparent when they 
are seen in a growing bush. Since it is a 
native of Southern Spain and Portugal it 
can hardly be considered absolutely hardy, 
though to the south of London it is rarely 
injured by frosts, and in the south-west 
grows luxuriantly. 
Though delighting in a peaty soil, it will, 
like rhododendrons, azaleas, and kalmias, 
flourish in a sound, porous loam that con¬ 
tains no lime. In some gardens it increases 
freely by self-sown seedlings, and on the 
embankment of a certain little Cornish sta¬ 
tion there are numbers of plants that have 
sprung from seed. Self-sown seedlings 
are cleared away when they threaten to 
crowd other plants, but they transplant 
easily, and soon almost rival their parents 
in size. It will occasionally attain a height 
of nearly ten feet, with a diameter of about 
four feet, if left untouched, but if it is 
annually cut bard for flower sprays it as¬ 
sumes a dwarfer habit, a bush in a neigh¬ 
bouring garden that has been treated in 
this manner for years now being about five 
feet in height and six feet across. Its 
foliage is of an extremely rich green, and 
the flowering season is a very prolonged 
•one, generally lasting for three or four 
months. Erica mediterranea and E. ar- 
borea also do well in Devon and Cornwall, 
one of the largest specimens of the former 
being about eight feet in height, and fif¬ 
teen feet through, while E. arborea con¬ 
siderably exceeds even these large dimen¬ 
sions. 
Wyndham Fitzherbert. 
South Devon. 
Clerodendron fallax.— The plants 
that flowered in autumin and have been 
reduced to the well-ripened wood, will by 
this tiime each show several young growths. 
These, if taken off with a small heel when 
about 3in. in length, inserted singly in 
small pots containing sandy soil, and plunged 
in the propagating frame, will be found to 
root readily. Shifted on into 5in. pots when 
nicely watered, they will provide a useful 
early summer batch. When grown from cut¬ 
tings they Tarely attain so high a state of de¬ 
velopment as well-grown seedlings. A batch 
for autumn-flowering may be naised bv sow¬ 
ing seeds at once in :a shallow pan. We pre¬ 
fer to save our seed, and^ having care¬ 
fully ripened it, store it in a small box filled 
with drv eiilver sand. Before they are sow>i 
the seeds are soaked in tepid water until 
they commence to swell when they are care¬ 
fully dibbled in a seed pan about thirty in 
each. A compost consisting of loam, peat, 
leaf-mould, and sand, is used in filling the 
seed pan. Place a sheet of glass over the 
pan and shade until the seedlings apoear, 
when they will require a light position. 
When of a size convenient for handling pot 
off singly, using a rich compost, and con¬ 
tinue to grow near the glass in the stove 
until reaflv for the final potting. H. Prime. 
Hatfield House .Gardens. 
