FIELD CROPS 525 



fodder are vastly greater, for where peas can be successfully grown 

 as a grain crop they can also be grown for the other uses named. 



Peas may be grown successfully on a variety of soils, but those 

 designated clay loams, and which are well supplied with lime, are 

 best adapted to their growth. However, good crops may be obtained 

 on the stiffest clays. The potash element in these favors the growth 

 of peas. Light, leachy sands, being deficient in moisture, do not 

 produce enough growth of vine, and black, humus soils produce 

 too much. Overwet soils are wholly unsuited to the growth of peas. 



Theoretically, peas should not come after meadow or pasture, 

 since they are capable of gathering nitrogen from the atmosphere, 

 and in consequence do not need the sustenance furnished in the 

 decay of grass roots so much as other grains; but in practice they 

 serve the end of quickly subduing such soils by promoting the 

 rapid decay of the sod and so putting the land in excellent condi- 

 tion for the crop which follows. Peas may be assigned any place 

 in the rotation, but the aim should be to have a grain crop follow 

 which is hungry for nitrogen. 



In climates where peas can be grown at their best, namely, 

 climates with low winter temperatures, the land for peas, as for 

 nearly all grain crops, should be plowed in the autumn; but peas 

 will do better than the other small cereals, relatively, on spnng- 

 plowed land. A fine pulverization of the soil is advantageous, but 

 it is not so necesasry for peas as for other grain crops, since the pea 

 is a hardy and vigorous grower. 



Some writers advocate sowing the seed broadcast and then 

 plowing it under. On heavy soils this method would bury the seed 

 too deeply. On prairie soils it promotes the rapid evaporation of 

 soil moisture. On fall-plowed lands the better plan is to prepare 

 the seed bed by pulverizing it, and then to sow the seed with a 

 grain drill. When broadcasted and covered with the harrow only 

 and rain follows, much of the seed will be exposed ; but the writer 

 has grown excellent crops on spring-plowed stiff clays from hand 

 sowing without any previous pulverization. When such lands are 

 carefully plowed, the peas fall in the depression between the fur- 

 row slices, and the subsequent harrowing covers them. Peas should 

 be buried less deeply on stiff clays and more deeply on the soils of 

 the prairie. The depth may be varied from 2 to 5 inches. The 

 pea crop should be sown as soon as the soil can be worked freely; 

 but it will suffer less, relatively, than the other grain crops if the 

 sowing has to be deferred. 



The quantity of seed required will vary with the character and 

 condition of the soil and with the variety of seed sown. Rich and 

 moist soils do not require so much seed as where the opposite con- 

 ditions prevail. The amount of the seed sown should usually 

 increase with the size of the pea. The quantities to sow per acre 

 will vary from 2 bushels with the smaller varieties to 3M> bushels 

 of the larger sorts. One great difficulty to be encountered in grow- 

 ing peas on prairie soils is the usual luxuriance of weed life, but 

 this may be held in check by harrowing the crop before it ap- 



