Field peas are sown about March or April, and succeed best in light, rich soils. They are generally considered an uncertain crop; but this is owing, in a great degree, to want of due attention to their culture. In common with most other seeds of this class, peas yield a nutritive food to persons of strong stomachs. When boiled in a fresh or green state, they are both wholesome and agreeable; and, when ripe and ground into meal, they are peculiarly serviceable for the fattening of swine. The flour of peas is not unfrequently mixed by bakers amongst that of wheat for bread; but bread made of this flour alone is heavy and unwholesome. Three parts of rye-flour and one of ground peas are said to yield a palatable and nourishing bread. Peas that are freed from their husks, and split in mills constructed for the purpose, are used for soup. The haulm or _straw_ of field peas, if saved in favourable seasons, affords not only an excellent fodder for working horses, but is also an useful food for horses, cattle, and sheep. It has been presumed that the _everlasting pea_, which is commonly grown as an ornamental flower in our gardens, would be an advantageous green food for horses and cattle. 201. _LIQUORICE is the root of a perennial plant_ (Glycyrrhiza glabra), _with winged leaves, and purplish butterfly-shaped flowers, which grows wild in the south of Europe, and is cultivated near Pontefract in Yorkshire, Worksop in Nottinghamshire, and Godalming in Surrey, and by many gardeners in the vicinity of London._ _The stalks of the liquorice-plant are usually four or five feet high. The leaves are winged, and the leaflets egg-shaped, with an odd one at the extremity. The flowers grow in long spikes from the junction of the leaves and branches. The roots are long, round, tough, of brown colour externally, and yellow within._ The principal use of liquorice is in medicine. It contains much saccharine matter, joined with some portion of mucilage; and is one of the few sweet substances which tend to allay thirst. Liquorice is an excellent medicine in coughs and hoarsenesses. When boiled in a little water, it gives out nearly all its sweetness; and this, when the moisture is evaporated, produces, by different processes, what are called _Spanish liquorice_, _liquorice cakes_, _liquorice lozenges_, and _Pontefract cakes_. The former of these is used to great extent in the brewing of porter. It is said that more than two hundred tons' weight of it are annually manufactured in Spain, a considerable portion of which is sold to the London brewers for this purpose. Liquorice powder, which is used in medicine, is often adulterated with flour, and probably also with less wholesome articles. The root itself may be employed as stopples for beer or wine bottles.