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.