1 8 PEAS AND PEA CULTURE 



of two, three, four, five, six and eight inches. Those 

 planted three inches deep gained highest per 

 cent of germination and a greater yield than 

 those planted at other depths. Time of maturity 

 was not materially affected by depth of planting. 



Manner of Planting. The popular method is 

 drilling with grain drill. Of course, in garden cul- 

 ture hand planting and drilling with corn planter, 

 with special seed plates, are in vogue. When a 

 grain drill is not available, peas are frequently 

 broadcasted by hand. In this event they may be 

 either sown on the rough furrow and disked in, or 

 the ground previously harrowed and left rather 

 rough, peas broadcasted and a light smoothing har- 

 row used for covering the seed. The danger of this 

 method is that seeds will not be covered deeply 

 enough and if heavy showers follow, are likely to be 

 washed out. Some recommend broadcasting the 

 peas on the land and plowing them under. The 

 danger here is of getting them too deep. Zavitz 4 

 states that in general, during a two years' test, 

 drilling gave better results than broadcasting. 



Seed Considerations. Good seed is an important 

 consideration with the pea crop as with all others. 

 "As a man sows so shall he reap." Zavitz and 

 Lochhead 5 report experiments for a number of years 

 in selecting large and small seed of the same 

 variety. It resulted in an average yield of 30.3 bush- 

 els grain and one and one-third tons straw per acre 

 for large seed, as against 23.9 bushels grain and 

 one and one-tenth tons straw per acre for small 

 seed. Using split pea seed as it came from the 



4 Ont. Agri. Col. Rpt. for 1897. 



5 Ont. Agri. Col,, Bui. 126, p. 32. 



