Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
1105. _The Advantage of sowing Peas in Circles instead of straight
Rows._--It is a great error in those persons who sow the rows of
tall-growing peas close together. It is much better in all those
sorts, which grow six or eight feet high, to have only one row, and
then to leave a bed ten or twelve feet wide for onions, carrots, or
any crops which do not grow tall.
The advantages which will be derived are, that the peas will not be
drawn up so much, be stronger, will flower much nearer to the ground,
and in wet weather can be more easily gathered without wetting you.
But instead of sowing peas in straight rows, if you will form the
ground into circles of three feet diameter, with a space of two feet
between each circle, in a row thirty feet long, you will have six
circles of peas, each nine feet, in all fifty-four feet of peas,
instead of thirty, on the same extent of ground.
If you want more than one row of circles, leave a bed of ten or
twelve feet before you begin another.
For the very tall sorts, four feet circles will afford more room for
the roots to grow in, and care must be taken, by applying some tender
twigs, or strings, to prevent the circles from joining each other.
This method is equally applicable for scarlet-beans.
1106. _To raise Peas in Autumn, and to prevent Mice from eating them
when sown._--The purple-flowered peas are found to answer best for
a late crop in autumn, as they are not so liable to be mildewed as
many of the other sorts, and will continue flowering till the frost
stops them.
Those peas may be sown in July, August, or so late as the first week
in September, if sown in a warm, sheltered situation, and in a soil
inclining to sand.
Soak the peas in warm milk, and after you have drawn the drills,
water them before you sow the peas; it is best to sow them towards
the evening. If the autumn should prove very dry, they will require
frequent watering.
When peas are sown before winter, or early in spring, they are very
apt to be eaten by mice.
To prevent this, soak the peas for a day or two in train oil before
you sow them, which will encourage their vegetation, and render them
so obnoxious to the mice, that they will not eat them.