r them.

A more troublesome, but often a safer method, is to raise plants in
pots, or in boxes about four and a half inches deep and pierced at the
bottom to insure free drainage. Old potting soil will answer admirably,
and the seeds should be put in one inch deep and two inches apart. Place
the pots or boxes in any light cool structure as near the roof-glass as
possible, but make no attempt to force either germination or the growth
of the plants. When fair weather permits, transfer to the open in March
or April. A good succession may be obtained by sowing a first-early
dwarf variety and a second-early kind simultaneously.

==Main crops== require plenty of room, and that is really the chief point
in growing them. Supposing the ground has been well prepared as already
advised, the next matter of importance is the distance between the rows.
The market gardener is usually under some kind of compulsion to sow Peas
in solid pieces, just far enough apart for fair growth, and to leave
them to sprawl instead of being staked, because of the cost of the
proceeding. But the garden that supplies a household is not subject to
the severe conditions of competition, and Peas may be said to go to the
dinner table at retail and not at wholesale price. Moreover, high
quality is of importance, and here the domestic as distinguished from
the commercial gardener has an immense advantage, for well-grown 'Garden
Peas' surpass in beauty and flavour the best market samples procurable.
To produce these fine Peas there must be plenty of space allowed between
the rows, and it will be found good practice to grow Peas and early
Potatoes on the same plot, and to put short sticks to the Peas as soon
as they are forward enough. By this management the first top-growth of
the Potatoes may be saved from late May frosts, and the Peas will give
double the crop of a crowded plantation. The general sowings of Peas are
made from March to June, but as regards the precise time, seasons and
climates must be considered. Nothing is gained by sowing maincrop Peas
so early as to subject the plant to a conflict with frost. It should be
understood that the finest sorts of Peas are somewhat tender in
constitution, and the wrinkled sorts are more tender than the round.
Hence, in any case, the wrinkled seeds should be sown rather more
thickly than the round to allow for losses; but robust-habited Peas
should never be sown so thickly as the early sorts, for every plant
nee