FARM MANAGEMENT 49 



conserve the moisture and permit the rains to penetrate the soil 

 more quickly and evenly, with less surface drainage and correfr 

 pondingly less waste of soil fertility. With the distinct ridge-and- 

 furrow cultivation the bad effects of rainfall are intensified if it 

 comes at all rapidly, as then it is quite completely shed into the 

 furrows, where it is forced to cover less than half of the available 

 area of the field, and thus becomes equivalent to a rainfall of more 

 than double the actual amount in its tendency to wash and to float 

 away the organic matter and finer silt, and to dissolve the water- 

 soluble salts of the soil which have accumulated over the whole 

 field by evaporation. The deep, flat cultivation, with many shal- 

 low, narrow furrows to draw the water, still leaves ridges, through 

 which the soil air may escape as the water enters by percolation 

 from the bottoms of the furrows, thus facilitating a more rapid 

 percolation, which thus holds the water at less depth in the furrows, 

 forcing it to flow more slowly and greatly reducing its carrying 

 power, so that washing is less marked. (Y. B. 1905; Y. B. 1907; 

 Y. B. 1909; Bu. Pit. Ind. B. 13; Wash. Exp. Sta. B. 15; Bu. 

 Pit. Ind. B. 68; F. B. 294; Del. Col. B. 40.) 



UTILIZING FARM WASTAGE. 



Under the old system of farming much material that is valuable 

 for feeding or fertilizing was left unutilized. Under modern and im- 

 proved methods the farmer utilizes everything possible. In some 

 sections many farmers engage extensively in the cultivation of peas 

 and beans for canning and commercial purposes. At first the 

 refuse of the cannery the- pods and vines was let go to waste. Re- 

 cent experiments have demonstrated that this refuse is valuable both 

 as a forage crop and as a fertilizer. 



Pea-Vine Silage. The most popular method of using pea 

 vines is as silage, and where the cannery is located in a dairy sec- 

 tion this is almost universally the system in practice. The same 

 treatment is also true for some of the sections where sheep and 

 cattle feeding are popular industries. 



There are two ways of making silage from pea vines, i. e., in 

 large stacks and in silos. The practice of putting the vines in large 

 stacks is the one most commonly employed, especially where prac- 

 tically all the vines from a cannery 'are handled by the canner or 

 by one or two other persons. At many factories it has become a 

 custom for the canners to put the vines up in stacks or silos and 

 either to sell the silage to farmers and feeders in the winter or to 

 buy stock and feed it out themselves, thus realizing a profit on what 

 was formerly a waste product. At other factories one or more 

 farmers or stock feeders will contract to keep the refuse vines cleared 

 away for what they can get out of them. Still another practice 

 is for the farmer who brings a load of peas to the factory to take 

 home his quota of vines, just as the dairyman takes his load of 

 whole milk to the creamery and then takes the separated milk home 

 to feed. 



The silage made from the refuse pea vines is generally re- 

 garded as possessing a high feeding value for dairy cows and other 



