COMPOSITION AND FEEDING VALUE 3 1 



Pea straw is valuable and relished by sheep, 

 horses and cattle. When vines are cut while a little 

 green and carefully cured without being drenched 

 with rain they will be nearly as good as clover in 

 feeding value. Pea silage is valuable, as well as the 

 fresh product cut green and brought direct to the 

 stock in the form of forage. In the latter event it is 

 usually customary to sow peas with oats or barley. 

 ]More will be found concerning this subject in the 

 special chapter on Peas as Forage and Soiling Crop. 



Peas for Cows. — In foreign countries, notably 

 Scotland, peas are regarded highly as a grain ration 

 for cows. In America their use is limited. This 

 refers to the grain crop, but when it comes to mix- 

 tures of peas with other crops to be used in the 

 green state for dairy cows, American farmers prize 

 the combination highly. Hills^° speaks of pea and 

 oat hay not being relished by milch cows. How- 

 ever, when eaten, the hay proved decidedly better, 

 pound for pound than any other fodder used. 

 Snyder" reports experiments with milch cows of the 

 digestibility of a ration of pea silage and wheat bran. 

 Peas were cut while green and placed in the silo 

 and opened the following ^larch. The silage was 

 sweet and in good condition and was generally rel- 

 ished by cows, especially when mixed with bran or 

 corn. A ration consisting of 34 pounds pea silage 

 and 12 pounds wheat bran gave satisfactory results. 



Day^^ gives a comparison of green oats and peas 

 with oats and tares for milch cows. The seed was 

 mixed in the proportion of two bushels oats to one 



"Third Annual Rpt. of Vt. Exper. Sta., pp. s^'H- 



" Minn. Exper. Sta., Bui. 26. 



'"Ont. Agri. Col. Rpt. for 1897, pp. 84-85. 



