PEAS.
These are sown in the field and garden. As a field-crop, peas and oats are sown together, and make good ground or soaked feed for horses, or for fattening animals. Early peas and large marrowfats are frequently sown broadcast on rich, clean land, near large cities, to produce green peas for market. It does not pay as well as to sow in rows three feet apart, and cultivate with a horse. All peas, for picking while green, are more convenient when bushed. They may produce nearly as well when allowed to grow in the natural way, but can not be picked as easily, and the second crop is less, and inferior, from the injury to the vines by the first picking. Early Kent peas (the best early variety) mature so nearly at the same time that the vines may be pulled up at once. All other peas had better be bushed, that they may be easily picked, and that the later ones may mature. Bushes need not be set so close as usual. A good bush, put firmly in the ground, to enable it to resist the wind, once in two and a half feet, is quite sufficient. Those clinging to the bushes will hold up the others. To bush peas in this way is but little work, and pays well. It is often said that stable-manure does no good on pea-ground—-that peas are neither better nor more abundant for its use. We think this utterly a mistake. We have often raised twice the quantity on a row well manured, that grew on another row by its side, where no manure had been applied. If peas be sowed thick on thoroughly-manured land, the crop will be small: it is from this fact that the idea has gained currency. They are generally planted too thick on rich land. Peas planted six inches deep will produce nearly twice as much as those covered but an inch. Plowing in peas and leveling the surface is one of the best methods of planting. To get an early crop in a cold climate, they may be forced in hotbeds, or planted in a warm exposure, very early, and protected by covering, when the weather is cold. At the South, it is best to plant so as to secure a considerable growth in the fall, and protect by covering with straw during cold weather.
The only known remedy for the bugs that are so common in peas, is late sowing. In latitude forty-two, peas sown as late as the 10th of June will have no bugs. Bugs in seed-peas may be killed by putting the peas into hot water for a quarter of a minute; plant immediately, and they will come up sooner and do well. Seed imported from the more northern parts of Canada have no bugs; it is probably owing to the lateness of the season of their growth. But late peas are often much injured by mildew; this is supposed to be caused by too little moisture in the ground, and too much and too cool in the atmosphere, in dew or rain. Liberal watering then would prevent it.
Varieties—are numerous. Two are quite sufficient. Early Kent the earliest we have ever been able to obtain, ripen nearly all at once; moderate bearers, but of the very best quality. This variety of pea is the only garden vegetable with which we are acquainted that produces more and better fruit for being sowed quite thick. The other variety that we recommend is the large Marrowfat. These should not stand nearer together, on rich land, than three or four inches, and always be bushed. There are many other varieties of both late and early peas, but we regard them inferior to these. White's "Gardening for the South" mentions Landreth's Extra Early, Prince Albert, Cedo-Nulli, Fairbank's Champion, Knight's tall Marrow, and New Mammoth. Whoever wishes a greater variety can get any of these under new names. The large blue Imperial is a rich pea, like many of the dwarfs, both of the large and small, but is very unproductive. We advise all to select the best they can find, and plant but two kinds, late and early.
Plant at intervals to get a succession of crops. But very late peas, in our dry climate, amount to but little, without almost daily watering.