BULLETIN 126. APRIL. 1903. 



Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm. 



PEAS AND THE PEA WEEVIL. 



By C. a. Zavitz, B. S. A., Experimentalist, and Wm. Lochhead, B. A., M. S., 



Professor of Biology. 



The field pea (Pisum arvense) is a native of Italy and has been 

 grown in the East from time immemorial. The garden pea (Pisum 

 sativum) is regarded by some botanists as a cultivated variety of the 

 field pea. Both kinds have been extensively grown in Ontario for 

 many years, and have been highly prized for their intrinsic value. 



Different Uses of the Pea Crop. 



Peas are used in, perhaps, a greater variety of ways than any 

 other crop grown in this Province. They are most commonly sown 

 alone, but not unfrequently in conjunction with oats, barley or spring 

 wheat. The crop is occasionally pastured off the land by farm stock, 

 and it is sometimes plowed under to increase the fertility of the soil. 

 When harvested, the unthreshed pea crop may be used as green fodder, 

 or cured and fed in the form of hay. The ripened peas are used ex- 

 tensively for feeding farm stock, or are sold for seed purposes in the 

 foreign as well as in the home markets. Shelled peas, when either 

 green or ripe, are prepared and used in various ways for culinary 

 purposes. The straw of green peas is hauled from the canning fac- 

 tories and fed at once, or placed in the silo, or made into hay ; and the 

 straw of the ripened crop is used throughout the winter season for 

 feeding sheep, dairy cattle, and other farm animals. 



Pea Growing in Ontario. 



The pea crop has undoubtedly occupied a very important place in 

 the agriculture of Ontario. According to the reports of the Bureau 

 of Industries, the average market value of the threshed peas grown 

 in Ontario during the past twenty years amounted to fully eight 

 million dollars a year. In 1897, no less than 896,735 acres were 

 devoted to the pea crop, this being the largest area under peas in any 

 single year. Since that date, however, there has been a gradual de- 

 crease until the year 1902, when only 532,639 acres of peas were 

 grown. This decrease is undoubtedly due to the great damage done 

 to the crop in south-western Ontario by the pea weevil, commonly 

 known as the " pea bug." 



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