10 



UTILIZATION OF PEA-CANNERY REFUSE FOR FORAGE. 



peas grown, either by the farmers or by the company, these are cured 

 by the company (see %. 3) and sold to the farmers at about the cost 

 of curing. This price runs from $3.50 to %A a ton, and many farmers, 

 especially those living some distance from the factory, prefer to pay 

 this rather than bother with curing the vines themselves. 



Pea- vine hay is greatly relished by horses, cattle, and sheep. 

 Many dairymen prefer it to the best clover hay as a roughage for 

 their cattle. In the winter even hogs will eat quantities of it, and 

 it is an excellent feed for brood sows. 



There is considerable difference of oi)inion regarding the value of 

 the hay as compared with the silage. Men who have tried both are 

 divided in opinion, some contending that the hay is far superior and 



Fig. 3.— Curing vines for liay at a canning factory. 



more economical to handle, while others claim just the opposite. 

 It is generally conceded, however, that properly cured pea-vine hay 

 is superior to clover hay for dairy cows. Some dairymen go so far 

 as to say that they consider pea-vine hay worth twice as much as 

 clover hay, but this is undoubtedly an exaggeration. 



Pea-vine hav is also a, good feed for work horses and mules and is 

 especially valuable for conditioning thin, overworked animals. In 

 giving his experience with pea-vine silage and hay, ISfr. J. F. Guenther, 

 of Owensboro, Ky., made the following statement: 



We used a larfrc .silo and ])Ut our pea vincy in it the first year we packed peas. We 



found that neither farmers nor dairymen would buy our silage from us. The next 



year we dried the pea vines and found this was much better than making silage from 



them. Pea-vino hay is so far superior to silage that there is no comparison. Besides, 



[Cir. 4.5 J 



