Book VI. THE PEA. 



837 



with sharp edges for the purpose, to every fifth ricige, or even into an adjoining grass field, in order that 

 it may be the better cured for use as cattle-food, and at the same time allow of the land being immediately 

 prepared for the succeeding crop. When wet weather happens whilst the peas lie in wads, it occasions a 

 considerable loss, many of them being shed in the field, and of those that remain a great part wdl be so 

 considerably injured as to render the sample of little value. This inability in peas to resist a wet harvest 

 together with the great uncertainty throughout their growth, and the frequently inadequate return in 

 proportion to the length of haulm, has discouraged many farmers from sowing so large a portion of this 

 pulse as of other grain ; though on light lands which are in tolerable heart, the profit, in a good year, is 

 far from inconsiderable. 



5209. In gathering green peas for the market, it is frequently a practice with the large 



cultivators of early green-pea crops in the neighbourhood of London to dispose of them, 



by the acre, to inferior persons, who procure the podders ; but the smaller farmers, for the 



most part, provide this description of people themselves, who generally apply at the 



proper season. 



5510. The business of picking or podding the peas is usually performed by the labourers at a fixed price 

 for the sack of four heaped bushels. The number of these labourers is generally in the proportion of about 

 four to the acre, the labour proceeding on the Sundays as well as other days. It is sometimes the custom 

 to pick the crops over twice, after which the rest are suffered to stand till they become ripe, for the purpose 

 of seed. This, however, mostly arises from the want of pickers, as it is considered a loss, from the peas 

 being less profitable in their ripe state than when green. Besides, they are often improper for the purpose 

 of seed, as being the worst part of the crop. It is therefore better to have them clear picked when hands 

 can be procured. After this they are loaded into carts, and sent oft' at suitable times, according to the 

 distance of the situation, so as to be delivered to the salesmen in the different markets from about three to 

 five o'clock in the morning. In many cases in other parts, the early gatherings are, however, sent to the 

 markets in halfbushel sieves, and are frequently disposed of at the high price of five shillings the sieve ; 

 but at the after periods they are usually conveyed in sacks of a narrow form, made for the purpose, which 

 contain about three bushels each, which, in the more early parts of the season, often fetch twelve or 

 fourteen shillings the sack, but afterwards mostly decline considerably; in some seasons so much as 

 scarcely to repay the expenses. This sort of crop affords the most profit in such pea seasons as are inclined 

 to be cool, as under such circumstances the peas are most retarded in their maturation or ripening, and of 

 course the markets kept from being overabundantly supplied. 



5211. The threshing of peas requires less labour than that of any other crop. 'Where 

 the haulm is to be preserved entire it is best done by hand ; as the threshing machine is 

 apt to reduce it to chaff. But where the fodder of peas is to be given immediately to 

 horses on the spot, the breaking of it is no disadvantage. 



5212. The produce of the pea in ripened seeds is supposed by some to be from three 

 and a half to four quarters the acre ; others, however, as Donaldson, imagine the average 

 of any two crops together not more than about twelve bushels ; and that on the whole, if 

 the value of the produce be merely attended to, it may be considered as a less profitable 

 crop than most others. But as a means of ameliorating and improving the soil at the 

 same time, it is esteemed of great value. 



5213. With respect to the produce in green peas in the husk, the average of the early crops in Middlesex 

 is supposed to be from about twenty-five to thirty sacks the acre, which, selling at from eight to eighteen 

 shillings the sack, afford about eighteen pounds the acre. The author of The Si/nopsis of Husbandry, 

 however, states the produce about Dartford, in the county of Kent, at about forty sacks the acre, though, 

 he says, fifty have sometimes been gathered from that space of land. 



5214. The produce of peas in straw is very uncertain, depending so much on the sort and the season : in 

 general it is much more bulky than that of the cereal grasses ; but may be compressed into very little 

 room. 



5215. The produce of peas in flour is as 5 to 2 of the bulk in grain, and husked and split for soups as 4 to 

 2. A thousand parts of pea flour afforded Sir H. Davy 574 parts of nutritive or soluble matter; viz. 501 of 

 mucilage or vegetable animal matter, 22 of sugar, 35 of gluten, and 16 of extract or matter rendered 

 insoluble during the operation. 



5216. The rise of peas for soups, puddings, and other culinary purposes, is well known. 



5217. In some places porridge, brose, and bread are made of pea-flour, and reckoned very wholesome 

 and substantial. In Stirlingshire it is customary to give pea or bean biscuits to horses, as a refreshment, 

 while in the yoke. The portion of peas not consumed as human food is mostly appropriated to the fatten- 

 ing of hogs and other domestic animals ; and, in particular instances, supplies the place of beans, as tl.e 

 provender of labouring horses ; but care should be taken, when used in this way, that they are sufficiently 

 drv, as, when given in the green state, they are said to produce the gripes, and other bowel complaints, in 

 those animals. Bannister, after observing that the haulm is a very wholesome food for cattle of every 

 kind, says, there is generally a considerable demand for peas of every denomination in the market, the 

 uses to w'hich they may be applied being so many and so various. The boilers, or yellow peas, always go 

 off briskly ; and the hog-peas usually sell for fid. or Is. per quarter more than beans. For feeding swine the 

 pea is much better adapted than the bean, it having been demonstrated by experience, that hogs fat more 

 kindly when fed with this grain than with beans ; and, what is not easy to be accounted for, the flesh of 

 swine which have been fed on peas, it is said, will swell in boiling, and be well tasted ; whilst the flesh of 

 the bean-fed hog will shrink in the pot, the fat will boil out, and the meat be less delicate in flavour. It 

 has, therefore, now become a practice with those farmers who are curious in their pork, to feed their hogs 

 on peas and barley-meal ; and if they have no peas of their own growth, they rather choose to be at the 

 expense of buying them, than suffer their hogs to eat beans. Nay, so far, says he, do some of them carry 

 their prejudice in this particular, as to reject the grey peas for this use, as bearing too near an affinity to 

 the bean, and therefore reserve their growths of white peas solely for hog-fatting. 



5-218. In boiling split peas, some samples, without reference to variety, fall or moulder down freely into 

 pulp, while others continue to maintain their form. The former are called boilers. This property of 

 boiling depends on the soil ; stiff' land, or sandy land, that has been limed or marled, or to which gypsum 

 has been applied, produces peas that will not melt in boiling, no matter what the variety may be. The 

 same effect is produced on beans, on kidneybeans in the pod, and indeed on the seeds and pods of all 

 leguminous plants ; this familv having a great tendency to absorb gypsum from the soil. To counteract 

 this fault in the boiling, it is only necessary to throw into the water a small quantity of subcarbonate of 

 soda. (Bull, de Sci. Agr. Feb. 18280 



5219. Pea straw cut green and dried is reckoned as nourishing as hay, and is con- 

 sidered excellent for sheep. 



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