THE GENESEE FARMER. 



109 



THE CULTIVATION OF PEAS. 



The culture of peas is greatly on the increase in 

 Western New York. We think there must be 

 Ithree or four times as many raised now as ten 

 years ago. 



We need hardly say that this is to us exceed- 

 ingly gratifying. We have for years earnestly 

 advocated the more extended cultivation of peas, 

 especially on wheat farms; and we would feign 

 believe that our explanations of the reason why 

 peas are a renovating crop have had their influence 

 in bringing about this result. There is one point, 

 however, in which farmers do not follow our ad- 

 vice : tJiey sell the peas. 



In such a case there is little advantage, so far as 

 enriching the land is concerned, in growing peas ; 

 but if they are fed out on the farm and the manure 

 carefully saved, there are few crops which will 

 prove more beneficial. One objection to the cul- 

 ture of peas in this section is their liability to 

 damage from the pea-beetle, or, as is commonly 

 but erroneously called, the " bug." But if the 

 peas are fed to pigs in the fall or early in the win- 

 ter, the bug does little damage. The young larvae 

 at this time are probably as nutritious as the pea 

 on which it feeds, and the pigs seem to have no 

 objection to the food I 



Peaa do well on sod-land, either plowed in the 

 fall or in the spring. If plowed in the fall the 

 land can be sown in the spring without again 

 plowing. If not plowed until spring, the sod 

 should be turned over in neat furrows, so as to 

 cover the grass completely, and then sow the peas 

 before harrowing. In this way they will be well 

 covered. 



Morton, in his (English) Farmers' Calendar^ has 

 the followmg remarks on peas : 



"This is the season for sowing the hardy sorts 

 of pea; and toward the end of the month any 

 kind of field pea may be sown. Tlie pea can 

 hardly be called an ameliorating crop, but admit- 

 ting of cultivation in the wide intervals between 

 the rows in which it is usually sown, and after- 

 ward covering the ground with a bulky smother- 

 ing growth of haulm, it is when well cultivated a 

 fallow crop. The land should thus be left cleaner 

 after peas than it was; and as the crop yields in 

 its nutritious straw a capital contritiution to the 

 dung-heap, a frequent crop of peas is no evidence 

 of cross-cropping. It rarely, however, forms a 

 regular part of the rotation, being taken now and 

 then, in addition to the common course of crop- 

 ping, when the land seems fit for it, or unfit for 

 the crop which it is taken to displace. The soils 

 best adapted for it are the lighter loams, which 

 are hardly stiff enough for beans; and calcareous 

 6oils are especially fitted for it. Pea-straw con- 

 tains iu its ashea from 35 to 40 per cent, of lime^ 



and 12 to 15 per cent, of potash. This indicates 

 the kind of soil which the plant requires. Peas 

 need liberal treatment and good cultivation like 

 any otiier crop, but bad tarmers are too apt to sow 

 this pulse when tlie laud will yield nothing else. 

 They have a proverb, among them, which signifies 

 that the season does for peas as much as good hus- 

 bandry ; and they fi'om thence take care that good 

 crops s^hall be owing to season alone. Hence arises 

 the general idea of peas being the most uncertain 

 crop. This is owing to tlieir being too often sown 

 on land that is not in good order. Let the careful 

 husbandman lay it down as a maxim, that he 

 should sow no crop on land that is not in good 

 order ; not merely in respect of fine tilth at the 

 time of sowing, but also of the soil being in good 

 heart and clear of weeds. I would not, however, 

 here be understood to rank all kinds of crops to- 

 gether ; because beans and peas will admit of 

 cleaning while they gr^ow. On that account, if a 

 farmer comes to a field which his predecessor has 

 filled with weeds, a horse-hoed crop of beans might 

 be expedient, when a barley crop would be utterly 

 improper. Peas, when managed in a spirited maa- 

 ner, will not have the reputation of being so very 

 uncertain a crop, for this character has, in some 

 measure, been owing to ill-conduct. From these 

 remarks, however, ihe reader is not to understand 

 that I think peas as certain as other crops; bat 

 this quality will still much depend on manage- 

 ment. 



" Peas after Oi-over. — The white boiling pea, 

 of many sorts, and under various names, is more 

 tender than the Greys and various kinds of hog 

 peas; but I have many times put them into the 

 ground in February, and though very smart frosts 

 followed, they received no injury. I have uni- 

 formly found that the earlier they were sown the 

 better. There is also a particular motive for being 

 as early as possible ; which is, to get them off in 

 time for stubble turnips. If they are sown in this 

 month, and a right sort chosen, they will be off 

 the land early in "July, so that turnips may follow, 

 at not too late a time for sowing that crop. All 

 the sorts of early peas should be cultivated on dry 

 soils only. Upon sands, dry sandy loams, gravels 

 and chalks they succeed well. Broadcast peas are 

 to be utterly rejected in every case. The only 

 question that can arise in their culture is between 

 drilling and dibbling. If the former is determined 

 on, the land should have been plowed in autumn 

 with the skim-coulter. The surface being worked 

 shallow with a scarifier and harrow as soon as 

 possible after winter, drilling should directly fol- 

 low. If dibbling is determined on, the land, if 

 already clean, need not be plowed till winter time 

 or after it, and a heavy roller follows the plow. 

 Dibbling peas on a clover layer generally results iu 

 a good crop. It is the practice of some farmers to 

 manure for ppas. If the land is in heart, and thpy 

 are put in on a layer, they do not want manure. 

 A very good crop may be gained without it. I have 

 had five, and even five quarters and a lialf (44 bush.) 

 an acre, without any manure applied for this crop. 

 Dung makes them run to long straw, and that is 

 not favorable for podding productively. Beans 

 will benefit from a heavy dressing of dung, but 

 with peas the the case is different. There are very 

 few situations in which the farmer cau have such 



