I 10 FORAGE CROPS. 



in the soil or subsoil during all stages of the growth 

 of the plants. Sandy loams are good if moist, but 

 not so good as clay loams. Peas will grow fairly 

 well on stiff, unyielding clays, but not so quickly as 

 on clay loams. Dry, sandy and gravelly lands defi- 

 cient in moisture are poor pea lands. The black 

 humus soils of the prairie are prone to grow too 

 much straw for good yields of the grain. But this 

 is not objectionable when the peas are grown for 

 sheep forage along with other grain, or to provide 

 soiling food. And muck lands are ill adapted to 

 growing peas for pasture or for the grain, since the 

 vines run chiefly to straw. While peas are rather 

 easily injured by drouth, if the soil on which they 

 are growing should be saturated with water for any 

 considerable time during their development, it would 

 be fatal to the growing of the peas. 



Preparing the Soil. In preparing the soil for 

 peas, the aim should be, first, to plow the land in the 

 autumn unless where there are good reasons for not 

 doing so; second, to plow it deeply; and, third, to 

 make a fine seed bed. In localities where the win- 

 ters are long, open and rainy, the land should not be 

 plowed in the fall. Nor is it necessary when the 

 peas are broadcasted and then plowed under. When 

 sod is plowed for peas, and more especially if it is 

 plowed for them in the spring, the furrow slices 

 should be narrow and laid at an angle of about 

 forty-five degrees. When peas are broadcasted on 

 land thus prepared, they fall down in the depres- 

 sions between the cone or crest of the respective 

 furrow slices. And when in covering the seed the 

 harrow is run straight along these furrow slices and 

 at one or two different angles over them, it drags 



