PEAS AS FUKAciE AND SOILING CROPS 57 



merit. He found that crops of peas can be grown, 

 supplying 130 pounds nitrogen per acre, which is 

 almost identical with that produced by alfalfa, 

 vetches, and many of the clovers. The organic mat- 

 ter produced is equal in quantity to that given by 

 a good clover crop, although somewhat less than 

 produced by alfalfa. In addition to nitrogen the pea 

 crop shows large percentages of phosphoric acid and 

 potash, particularly the latter. 



Balentine^ conducted a series of contests to deter- 

 mine comparative value of peas and barley as a 

 fertilizer and for feeding. He concluded that peas 

 for stock purposes are to be preferred to barley. A 

 Black-Eyed Marrowfat pea yielded double the 

 amount of the Canada field pea. Zavitz and Loch- 

 head^ seeded peas with oats as a pasture crop for 

 cattle. The results were not entirely satisfactory, as 

 the oats were eaten much more readily than the 

 peas. The mixture is more suitable for sheep or 

 swine. A\'heat grown after a crop of peas averaged 

 36 bushels to the acre, after a crop of rape 30 bush- 

 els, and after a crop of buckwheat 29 bushels. 



Schneidewind* secured good results with peas as 

 a green manure. He states that the success of 

 green manures depends more largely upon the rain- 

 fall during the period of growth than upon the 

 character of the soil. In Canada, where field peas 

 were used as a green manure for preparation of 

 land for winter wheat, an average of six and one- 

 half bushels more wheat to the acre was secured 

 than where buckwheat was plowed under. A for- 



^ Me. Exper. Sta. Farm, Bui. 1890. 

 'Ont. Agri. Col. Farm, Bui. 126. 

 *E. S. R., Vol. 19. 



