ARID AGRICULTURE. 151 



made and cured hay is fed. The threshed peas 

 are highly nitrogenous food. They are specially 

 valuable for young, growing stock. Except for 

 lambs or pigs which have good teeth and can 

 grind their food, peas should be chopped or 

 ground. Pea hay which contains ripe and partly 

 ripe peas will make the horses slick and shiny in 

 the spring and will put good fat on any kind of 

 stock. 



HARVESTING In many parts of the West the cheapest and 



PASTURING best me thd of harvesting the field pea is to pas- 

 ture with stock. In the San Luis Valley, and 

 other places, lambs to be fattened are turned on 

 the pea fields early in October and allowed to run 

 for about one hundred days. These lambs may 

 be followed by pigs, which clean up the waste 

 peas that have been shelled out and trampled un- 

 der foot. The best method is to use hurdles, or 

 division fences, so the stock will not run over and 

 tramp down all the peas during the first feeding 

 period. They should have fresh food and the 

 best supply at the end of their fattening period, 

 and this can only be secured by using a part of 

 the field at a time. By this method of feeding 

 the expense of harvesting and handling the 

 crop is saved. All that is necessary is to see that 

 the animals are supplied with proper water and 

 salt. 



An acre of peas that makes a good crop will 

 feed and fatten eight to twelve lambs and leave 



