170 



SOUTHERN FIELD PEA. 



ness with vegetable mould, as they fall and decay 

 fi-oni year to year. But neither the mould nor manure 

 formed of pine leaves is half so valuable as mould 

 or manure derived wholly from peas, or pea vines. 

 The latter are truly as much better than pine straw to 

 feed the hungry earth and strengthen it, as they are 

 to feed «nd nourish a hungry horse or cow. Every 

 one knows that a bushel of peas and a bushel of saw- 

 dust are widely different in their value and alimentary 

 properties ; while but few know on what elements 

 and their conditions, this essential difference depends. 

 Without going into a critical e.xamination of this 

 legume in reference to its relative nutritive value, or 

 soluble elements available to form healthy blood in 

 animals, suffice it to say there is no other plant which 

 taken as a whole, including seeds, stems, leaves and 

 roots that e.xcels it. 



Whether this southern pea will flourish aa well in 

 all the northern States as it does in its natural cli- 

 mate, admits of doubt ; although the writer believes 

 that it will grow and ripen its fruit at a lower temper- 

 ature than maize, which is also a southern p'ant 

 After wheat had been harvested in May, the land 

 plowed, seeded, and a crop of indigenous grass grown 

 and cut for hay in July, we have known the land to be 

 plowed for the third crop, sown to cow-peas, and 

 these come to maturitv in time to seed the ground 

 again with wheat in autumn, in the vicinity ^of 

 Augusta, Ga. As the plant requires less heat than 

 corn, it is possible that it may ripen in a climate 

 as cool as that of England, where maize can not 

 be successfully cultivated. Experiment, however, 

 can only settle the question of its geographical and 

 climatic limits. It is already successfully cultivated 

 as far north as New Jersey. Dr. Houghton of 

 Philadelphia, has written two articles on this sub- 

 ject recently, which appear in the January and Feb- 

 ruary numbers of the Pa. Farm Journal, in which 

 he states his experience and observations. lie says : 

 " The field pea, as I have stated in a previous article, 

 deli"hts in sandy soil, and will grow where clover will 

 not, affording a vast amount of foliage, and shading the 

 land completely, on even the poorest soil, without 

 any other manure than a little charcoal, or well 

 rotted muck or peat. Lime, as is well known is 

 essential to the |)ea, as well as clover, and plaster of 

 Pari-! is a very appropriate dressing where a crop of 

 peas is desired." 



Having for the last eight years been editorially 

 connected with the oldest agricultural journal pul)- 

 lished in the cotton-growing States, where every 

 variety of this southern plant is most cultivated, the 



writer is able to say that poor sandy soils, and also 

 the red clay and molatto lands of the south which 

 contain the minimum quantity of lime will grow a 

 better crop of peas than of any other cultivated 

 plant. If naturally sterile soils, and those iinpover- 

 ihhed by unwise tillage and excessive cropping, 

 would not pprout cow-peas, and bring them to matu- 

 rity, this legume would be worthless to impart fer- 

 tility to the " old fields" of the planting States. Like 

 all other food-plants, it grows vastly better on rich 

 laud than on poor ; but on a soil so barren that not 

 more than from three to four bushels of corn can be 

 matured per acre, from si.x to eight bushels of peaa 

 may be grown. It is the usual practice to plant or 

 sow the latter at the last plowing in June in stand- 

 ing corn. Cultivated in this way, the pea-vines 

 rarely make much growth until after the corn ripens, 

 and cca.ses to draw on the earth for its organizablC' 

 ingredients. As they approach maturity, corn plantai 

 shade the peas less, and the vines bind themselve* 

 like northern pole beans round the stalks of corn, and 

 where the soil is rich hang off in clusters. No more 

 peas are usually gathered than are wanted for seed 

 the crop being either cut and cured for hay, or morf 

 generally consumed by all kinds of farm stock in thi 

 field. 



Dr. Houghton, writing from southern Virginist |( 

 says : " As a broadcast crop after grain, in th* ^ 

 South, to be turned under in the fall, or as a broac 

 cast crop in Pennsylvania and New Jei-sey, to h- [^ 

 turned under as a manure, or fed to stock in the fieli 

 it is one of great value. The season is too shoi 

 with you to get a good crop of vines after wheat ( 

 oats, the same season. But in Virginia and farth( 

 south, this is done with great advantage. I saw 

 field near Richmond, a few days ago, on which whei 

 had been raised with a large increase of grain, evei 

 year for three years in succession, and now in whe 

 for the fourth year with a fine show of blades ; at 

 this was in some degree attributable to the fact th 

 as soon as the wheat was removed, peas were sov 

 broadcast, and produced the same season a rich ai 

 heavy crop of vines, partly sefc<led, which were turn- 

 under in preparing the ground for the next sowing 

 wheat." 



Dr. Cloud of Alabama, a planter and editor of 

 agricultural paper called the Cotton Planter, urg 

 the cultivation of the field pea in conjunction wi 

 cotton-culture, as well as with corn. Ashe is regi 

 lied as high authority, we will copy a few of his sta 

 ments : " In this cycle of rotation, and shift of crc 

 which I practice, there is afforded in the first pli 



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