104 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



soiling, that the crop may be harvested with greater 

 ease, and that the value of the pea vines as stock food 

 may not be impaired by their lying on the ground. 



Whether fed as a soiling food or in the cured 

 form, peas are much relished by all kinds of domestic 

 animals. In the green form, peas are specially suited 

 to the needs of animals giving milk. In the cured 

 form they are specifically a food for sheep, and the 

 ripened grain is unsurpassed as a food for swine. 

 The yield of the mixed crop in the green form is 

 seldom less than ten tons per acre, and probably 

 seldom more than twenty tons. 



Distribution. The common field pea may be 

 grown in excellent form above the forty-fifth parallel 

 of north latitude and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 except in some limited areas in the dry belt east of 

 the Rocky mountains. As a mixed crop for soiling, 

 and even in the unmixed form, it may also be grown 

 many miles south of the line named, at least in certain 

 areas. But below the forty-second parallel, the 

 fruitage of the plants becomes more or less uncertain 

 because of the high temperatures that prevail when 

 the pea is in bloom. On high elevations the crop 

 is not thus affected, hence in such situations peas 

 will produce abundantly far southward. It is found 

 at its best in temperatures that are equable, and in 

 climates moist in character. 



Soil. Loam soils strongly impregnated with 

 clay are eminently adapted to growing peas. They 

 may also be grown with much success on stiff clays. 

 The returns from sandy loams will be favorably 

 influenced or otherwise, according as these soils con- 

 tain much or little clay. And the same is true of 



