PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE.

SECTION‘XI.

Cultivation of Arable Land(continued).

PEAS.—This is a crop which is lefs certain than moft others, and even when productive moftly inferior in value, except in particular fituations, as near large towns, when produced early for the table, to thofe of the grain kind. Yet from ‘fach crops when full, having much tendency to improve the lands on which they are cultivated, as well as to render them clean and free from weeds, they are cultivated to a confiderable extent in many diftriéts of the kingdom. The varieties of peas employed in cultivation are extremely numerous; but thofe adapted to field culture are generally diftinguifhed into two kinds, the early and the late: of the former are the early Chariton, the golden hot/pur, and the common white; of the latter all thofe of the gray kind, as the Marlborough gray, the horn gray, the maple gray,&c.: the firft of thefe forts is generdlly confidered the beft for field hufbandry.;

This crop may be grown upon almoft any fort of foil, but fucceeds beft on fuch as are dry and poflefs a middling degree of lightnefs, with a tolerably mellow con- dition, having a portion of calcareous matter in their compofition, as without this ingredient peas are faid not to fill or ripen fo perfectly. Pea crops are mofily put in after wheat, oats, or other kinds of grain. They may likewife fucceed clover or faintfoin in many cafes with advantage; and on old ley grounds, when newly broken up, where danger is apprehended from the worm, they may often be found a beneficial crop. But after whatever fort of crop peas may be cultivated, it will generally be neceflary to have the foil reduced into a tolerable ftate of pulverifation before they are put in, and, where it can be fpared, a portion of manure applied. For this purpofe, a compoft of earth, dung and lime may be the moft ufeful, efpecially where there is little or no calcareous matter in the foil. Pea crops may thus be rendered not only more abundant but better filled, and ripened at an

earlier period.