BULLETIN 412 



conflict with cultivating came principally in the Steuben area, with the 

 potato crop. To compete with these crops the returns per hour must 

 be good. 



Competition with other crops for land. The basis of most systems of 

 crop production is a rotation of some sort. The competition for land 

 is between crops that fit equally well into the rotation . The commonest 

 rotation in which peas are grown in the areas studied is: (i) a cultivated 

 crop; (2) peas, beans, oats, or barley; (3) winter wheat; (4) hay. Each 

 farmer was asked what crop he would have grown on the same land if he 

 had not grown peas. The most frequent answers to this question were: 

 oats, 70; barley, 37; oats or barley, 47; beans, 18; hay, 8; cabbage, 10; 

 potatoes, 7. Oats and barley are both crops which normally yield low 

 returns. In 1920 beans were an uncertain crop. 



Peas are used also as a crop with which to seed hay or alfalfa. This 

 practice is commonest in the pea-growing sections where wheat is not 

 an important crop. Barley or oats are ordinarily used to seed with in 

 these sections if peas are not grown. The competition for land is less 

 important than the competition for labor. 



Effect on the yields of other crops in the rotation. The opinion is generally 

 held by farmers that wheat yields are better after peas than after oats or 

 barley. Increases in yields of wheat when grown following peas, over the 

 yields of wheat following other crops, according to estimates of the farmers, 

 are given in table 22. If the land on which peas are grown can be worked 

 immediately after the peas are harvested, it may be fitted for wheat 

 without plowing. However, because of other work at this season, it is 

 not usually possible to do this, and it is then necessary to plow and fit the 

 land in the usual manner. 



TABLE 22. 



YIELD OF WHEAT PER ACRE IN RELATION TO THE PRECEDING 

 CROP GROWN 



VARIATIONS IN THE COST OF PRODUCING PEAS 



When the cost-of -production data of any commodity are studied, it 

 is found that there are wide variations in the cost per unit for different 

 producers. The range of costs of producing peas on 262 farms in 1920 

 is given in table 23. 



The average cost of production of peas was $62 a ton, and the cost 

 below which 85 per cent of the crop (tons) was produced was about $75. 

 The average price received for peas was $80.44 per ton. Approximately 

 90 per cent of the crop was produced at a cost below this. This range 

 of costs is for a year when the yield was higher than the average yield 

 over a period of years. If the yield per acre had been 1800 pounds, the 



