4 UTILIZATION OF PEA-CANNEEY REFUSE FOR FORAGE. 



and (rreedily eaten by stock, especially cattle and sheep. The lar<j:;er 

 the pile of vines and the more they were trampled in piling the 

 smaller the percentage of spoiled material. From this discovery 

 developed the practice of stacking the vines in order to save them, 

 when previously the only question to be solved was how to get rid 

 of them. Wlien the vines are carefully put up in large, well-trampled 

 stacks, the decomposition is reduced to a minimum and the unpleasant 

 odor is much less in evidence, thus making it possible to stack them 

 quite near the cannery without disagreeable results. 



In other sections a short hay crop led the farmers to undertake 

 curing pea vines for hay, and they soon discovered that the valuable 

 forage thus secured j>aid them liandsomely for their trouble. 



PRESENT METHODS OF UTILIZING THE REFUSE VINES. 



Several methods of utilizing refuse pea vines are in use at present. 

 These are as silage, as hay, as a green feed or soiling crop, and as a 

 fertilizer. During the season of 1908 a large amount of data on 

 methods of utilizing this by-product was obtained from canners, 

 farmers, and feeders throughout the pea-growing sections. The data 

 obtained show that 96 canneries handled the peas grown on a total of 

 65,959 acres, and that the refuse vines from 40,518 acres, or 61 per cent 

 of the total, were used as silage; from 13,785 acres, or 21 percent, as 

 hay; from 7,731 acres, or 12 per cent, as a green feed or soiling crop, 

 and that from the remaining 3,925 acres, or 6 i)er cent, the refuse 

 vines were either used as a fertilizer or thrown away. 



PEA-VINE SILAGE. 



From the figures just presented it is evident that the most popular 

 method of using pea vines is as silage, and where the cannery is 

 located in a dairy section this is almost universally the system in 

 practice. The same statement is also true for some of the sections 

 where sheep and cattle feeding are popular industries. 



There are two ways of making silage from pea vines, i. e., in large 

 stacks and in silos. The practice of putting the vines in large stacks 

 is the one most commonly employed, especially where practically all 

 the vines from a cannery are handled by the canner or by one or two 

 other persons. At many factories it has become a custom for the 

 canners to put the vines up in stacks or silos and either to sell the 

 silaire to farmeis and feeders in the winter or to buy stock and feed it 

 out themselves, thus realizing a profit on what was formerly a waste 

 product. At other factories one or more farmers or stock feeders 

 will contract to keep the refuse vines cleared away for what they can 

 get out of them. Still another practice is for the farmer who brings 



[Cir. 45] 



