626 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



pears above the surface. Harrows with teeth which may be set 

 aslant are the most suitable for the work. 



Until recent years the pea crop was harvested with the scythe 

 or with the old-fashioned revolving hayrake. The first method 

 is slow ; the second shells out many of the peas, and it so covers the 

 vines with soil as to render the straw practically unfit for use. 

 Happily, a pea harvester has been introduced, by the aid of which 

 the crop may be harvested speedily and in excellent condition on 

 level soils. It is simply an attachment to an ordinary field mower. 



The guards in front lift up the peas so that the knife can cut 

 them cleanly. The cut peas fall behind the mower in a string- 

 like row, or swath, and two men with forks bunch them and lay 

 them aside out of the way of the horses. Three men and a span 

 of horses may thus harvest 10 acres in a day. This attachment for 

 harvesting peas is made in Canada, and those now in use in the 

 iWest have all been imported. On rear-cut mowers a platform is 

 sometimes used. 



With this attachment, one man walks behind and with a fork 

 throws the peas off in bunches. But the platform is of doubtful 

 advantage unless the crop is evenly ripened, not too heavy, and 

 free from standing weeds of strong growth. Where the land has 

 been plowed in ridges, with furrows more or less deep between 

 them, the working of the machine will be seriously interfered with. 



It is usual to turn the bundles over once to facilitate drying 

 while they lie on the ground. They require hand loading. The 

 crop may be stored under cover or put into stacks, as with other 

 grain, but it should be borne in mind that peas when in the stack 

 do not readily shed rain, and therefore the stacks should be care- 

 fully topped out with some substance, such as bluegrass or native 

 prairie hay. When the thrashed straw is preserved in stacks the 

 same precautions are necessary. 



Where only a small quantity is grown annually, and this 

 with a view to provide seed to sow for pasture, soiling, or fodder 

 uses, there is no better way of thrashing the peas than by using 

 a flail or by treading them out with horses. The seed is not then 

 broken. Where a large acreage is grown it is necessary to thrash 

 peas with a thrashing machine, and the best work is done by using 

 the "bar concave." 



From this concave all the teeth should be removed except four. 

 These hold the straw in check long enough to enable the cylinder 

 teeth to beat out all the peas. The machine should not run at a 

 high rate of speed. More or less of the seed is likely to be broken. 

 The broken grains, however, may be nearly all removed when pre- 

 paring the crop for seed or for market by using fanning mills 

 suitably equipped with sieves. When the crop is varied for feed- 

 ing uses the breaking of the peas does not, of course, lessen its 

 value. (F. B. 224; Colo. A. E. S. 40, 47; Mont. Ag. Col. E. S. 

 68; Wash. St. Col. A. E. S. 99; U. Wyo. A. E. S. 72, 84.) 



COWPEAS.* 



A system of agriculture without the use of a leguminous crop 



For illustration, see page 393. 



