524 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



crop is ready as soon as the spring grasses begin to fail, and it may 

 be made to continue in season until corn is ready. It is excellent 

 for all kinds of live stock, but especially valuable for dairy cows. 

 The advantages resulting from growing peas in conjunction 

 with other grains for fodder are many. They include the follow- 

 ing: First, larger yields may be obtained from growing these 

 mixtures than by growing the grains used in them singly, and the 

 increased yield extends to the grain as well as to the straw ; second, 

 when fodder is thus grown it may be fed directly to the animals 

 it is not necesary, usually, to chaff it with the cutting box, and the 

 labor and cost of first thrashing and grinding the grain are 

 avoided; third, a pasture crop, such as rape or rye, may follow the 

 same season. Such a system 1 will be found most helpful as an aid 

 in destroying weeds. As the relative areas adapted to growing these 

 foods far exceed those adapted to growing peas for the grain, it is 

 probable that in the near future they will be most extensively grown 

 for soiling and fodder uses. 



Like all leguminous crops, peas have the power of extracting 

 nitrogen from the air and of depositing it in the soil for the use 

 of other crops which follow. Hence it is that the soil on which 

 a crop of peas has been harvested is richer in nitrogen than before 

 the peas were sown upon it. Peas could thus be made to bring 

 more nitrogen to the soils of this country every year than is now 

 purchased annually by the farmers at a cost of millions of dollars. 



Besides the nitrogen that it brings to the soil, the value of a 

 crop of peas in fertilizing and also in improving the mechanical 

 texture of the soil is greatly enhanced when it is grown as a green 

 manure. When soils become so impoverished that good crops can 

 no longer be grown on them, they may be quickly renovated and also 

 cleaned by plowing under a pea crop preceded by winter rye. The 

 rye should, of course, be sown in the autumn, and plowed under in 

 the spring when the heads begin to appear. The peas should be 

 sown immediately, and in turn plowed under when in bloom. 

 Ground thus treated would be fertilized and cleaned in one season. 

 Its tilth would be much improved, and its power to hold moisture 

 would be greatly increased. To a farmer in the dry Northwest 

 the benefit last mentioned would probably be the greatest. The 

 high price of the seed in the past has stood seriously in the way of 

 growing peas expressly for fertilizing uses. 



That so valuable a crop should not have received more atten- 

 tion is indeed surprising. Chief among the reasons why it has 

 been so neglected are the following: The lack of knowledge as to 

 its merits, the difficulty in procuring seed, the want of suitable 

 machinery for harvesting the crop, and the small measure of atten- 

 tion given to it, relatively, by the experiment stations. But little 

 is known of the value of tne pea crop by the average farmer. 



Without any doubt there are vast areas in our favored country 

 well adapted to growing peas as a grain crop. But the areas in 

 which the crop can be grown for pasture, for soiling uses, and for 



