_^™'5^^. 



Vol. XVI., Second Serie3. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., JUNE, 1855. 



No. 6 



THE GENESEE FARMER, 



A MOXTULY JOUR-VAL OF 



AGRICULTUR E & HOR TICULTURE. 



Volume XVL, Second Series, 1855 

 iOAIiriE;i< L.EE AND \V. D. Al.L,IS, KDITOKS. 



JOSEPH FROST, HORTICULTURAL EDITOR. 



ingle Copy, __ .?0.50 



%e Copies, 2.00 



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And at the .some rate for any lai-ger number. 



DAMEI, LKE, 

 Publisher and Propriet'tr, Rochester, iV. T. 



lU! 



SOUTHERN FIELD PEA. 



A Field Pea of great economical value for feed- 

 ig live stock, fitttening swine, and improving the 

 il, is extensively grown in the Southern States, 

 thich is little known, and less cultivated in the 

 orthern and North-western parts of this extended 

 public. The plant belongs botanically to the same 

 ibe of the northern field pea, (Pisum salivum,) but 

 it to the same genus. Darby, in his " Botany of 

 jlYI '6 Southern States," Torrey, and other authorities, 

 ake it a genus by itself, called Vicia, from vincio to 

 ■nd. This genus has but two known species, V. 

 sroliniana, (Walter,) and V. AcutifoUa, (Elliott,) 

 •which there are forty or more varieties. The 

 :nus is thus described by Prof Darby : 

 " Calyx tubular, five toothed, the two upper teeth 

 e shortest. Style bent ; outside the style near the 

 mmit, villous. Legume many seeded. Leaves 

 mate. Leaflets in several pairs. Petioles extend- 

 into tendrils." 



It is doubtless indigenous ; and from the circuni. 

 .nee of its having been cultivated by the aborigi- 

 i, it has long been known as the " Indian Pea," to 

 tinguish it from the English garden pea, just as 

 indigenous maize has' been denominated " Indian 



lolfe 



Corn,'' to distinguish it from the common cereals 

 brought over from Europe by the first colonists. 

 Under a wise system of farm economy, this American 

 Legume is second only in value to maize, from its 

 natural adaptation to the soil and climate of the 

 United States ; and from the large amount of excel- 

 lent forage and seeds that may, with little labor, be 

 produced per acre. 



Peas, beans and other pulse belonging to this 

 numerous family, have been cultivated for the con- 

 sumption of man and his domesticated animals from 

 the earliest ages of which history gives any account ; 

 and modern chemical analysis has shown that the 

 seeds of these plants are richer than wheat or corn in 

 flesh forming constituents. The stems and leaves ol 

 properly cured pea vines, whether belonging to the 

 European or American genus, are three times as 

 nutritious as the stems and leaves of wheat, rye, 

 barley or oats, for feeding horses, cattle, or sheep. 

 Indian corn contains more oil and starch than 

 either peas or beans ; and therefore where the pro- 

 duction of fat is the principal object, as in the last 

 feeding of fatting hogs, corn is a httle better than 

 peas. For all growing or working animals, for sheep 

 and dairy husbandry, and for making rich manure, or 

 turning in as a renovating crop, the Ficia has probably 

 no equal among American agricultural plants. Like 

 the long tap-root of the bean, of clover, lucerne, and' 

 sainfoin, that of the cow-pea, (as the plant is called 

 at the South) descends, in a permeable soil, to a 

 great depth. This enables the plant to draw its 

 mineral food from below the surface soil after the 

 latter has been impoverished by shallow plowing, 

 washing, and excessive cropping, without the appli- 

 cation of manure. " Old field pines," so abundant at 

 the South, flourish by the aid of that organization 

 ■which imbibes aliment equally from the deep sub- 

 soil and the atmosphere. The foliage of these trees 

 recuperate exhausted land, by covering its naked- 



