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which forms the drills, by which means the drills are formedand sown at one operation. Others recommend Bailey’s drill-machine, as the best calculated for that purpose.
It has been already mentioned, that the time of sowing va-ries according to the particular kind of pea which is cultiva-ted. Cold- seed peas are sown at the same season with beans,and are often mixed with them, in February if possible, butnot later than March, as otherwise their ripening and har-vesting would be very precarious. Hot-seed is sown at thesame season with oats, which is in March or April; themottled variety, or partridge-pea, at the same season withbarley, that is in April or May,
When sown broadcast, a full quantity of seed ought to begiven, as the crop seldom grows with vigour till it covers theground; four to five bushels per acre are necessary. Whendrilled, four bushels may be sufficient, or even a little lesswhen the land is in very good order; but, generally speaking,seed ought not to be distributed with too rigid economy, as a Ifull crop, of any kind of grain whatever, is cheaply purchased jby giving a sufficiency of seed ; while a scanty crop, besidesbeing in itself unprofitable, is sure to poison the land, by fa-cilitating the growth of weeds. In regard to the quantity ofseed, much must depend upon the size of the pea, and otherqualities of the pulse must be taken into account, as the luxuri-ance of growth, &c.
§ 4. Cultivation ‘while growing _To broadcast crops of any
kind, no cultivation whatever is usually given in Scotland ,except cutting over thistles by the weed-hook, or pulling themup by nippers. With drilled peas, horse-hoeing has seldombeen attempted, as the intervals are too narrow for using thescraper or Dutch horse-hoe, and the compound hoeing im-plement has not been adopted in Scotland , so far as is knownto the reporter. Drilled peas are however generally hand-hoed , and this operation ought always to be performed early,before the plants begin to fall over, and should be very dili-gently executed.