LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 137 



and may be sown as soon as the ground is dry. This will 

 enable them to ripen in season to plow for wheat. They 

 are very liable to attack from the pea-bug, which deposits its 

 egg in the pea while in its green state where it hatches, and 

 the worm by feeding on the pea, diminishes its weight nearly 

 one-half. Here it remains through the winter and comes 

 out as a bug the following season. To avoid this pest, some 

 sow only such seed as has been kept over two years, while 

 others sow as late as the 15th or 25th of May which delays 

 the pea till after the period of its attacks, but this latter prac- 

 tice seldom gives a large crop. It may be killed by pouring 

 boiling water upon the seed, stirring for a few minutes, and 

 then draining it off. Peas are sometimes sown in drills, but 

 most usually broadcast, at the rate of two or three bushels 

 per acre. It is better to plow them in to the depth of three 

 inches and afterwards roll the ground smooth to facilitate 

 gathering. When sown in drills they may be worked by 

 the cultivator soon after coming up. The growth is pro- 

 moted by steeping the seed for twenty or thirty hours in 

 urine and then rolling it in ashes or plaster. 



HARVESTING is accomplished by cutting with the sickle 

 or scythe, or what is more expeditious, (when fully ripe so 

 that the roots pull out easily) with the horse rake. When 

 thus gathered into heaps and well dried, they may be 

 threshed out and the haulm carefully stacked and saved for 

 sheep fodder. If this is secured in good condition, cattle 

 and sheep will do well upon it. Peas are frequently sown 

 with oats and when thus grown, they be fed to sheep or 

 horses unground, or made into meal for swine. 



THE Cow PEA. This is grown in the Southern states, 

 and is valuable either as a fertilizer or as food for domestic 

 animals. Its long vines and succulent leaves which draw 

 much of their substance from the air, and its rapid and luxu- 

 riant growth particularly adapt it to the first object, while 

 its numerous and well filled pods and its great redundancy 

 of stem and leaf afford large stores of forage. This is im- 

 proved for cattle, when harvested before the seed is fully 

 ripe. It is sown broadcast, in drills, or hoed in among corn, 

 when the latter is well advanced. If in drills, it may be 

 cultivated in its early stages by the plow, shovel-harrow or 

 cultivator. It may be cut with the scythe, or drawn toge- 

 ther with a heavy iron-toothed harrow or horse rake as with 



