( 106 ) 



formers, 22.4 ; carbohydrates or heaters, 52.3 ; crude fibre, 9.2 ; 

 fat, 2.5 ; water, 14.3. The composition shows them to be very nu- 

 tritious, and animals fatten rapidly when fed with them liberally. 

 The pea haulm, when dry, gives, by analysis, water, 14.3 ; ash, 4 ; 

 albuminoids, 6.5; carbohydrates, 35.2; crude fibre, 40; fat, 2. 

 This shows the haulm to be three times as valuable for feeding 

 purposes as wheat straw, and a little more valuable as a feed than 

 barley straw mixed with clover, and one-third better than common, 

 fodder. 



The cow or field pea of the Southern States is more like a bean 

 than a pea, and is supposed to be a species of dolichos belonging to 

 the pulse family whose species is undetermined. Be this as it may, 

 its value as a farm crop has long been known. The ease with 

 which it is cultivated, and its great value as a forage plant and as a 

 fertilizer, have given it a prominent place in Southern agriculture. 

 It belongs to the leguminous or pulse family, and is known as a. 

 pea, and for that reason it will be treated of under that head. 



The letter below, from the Hon. H. M. Polk, of Hardeman 

 county, is so thorough and exhaustive that nothing more need be 

 said on the subject, only remarking that no soil in this State is so 

 poor that it will not grow peas : 



BOLIVAR, HAEDEMAN COUNTY, TBNN. ) 



July 2, 1878. / 

 Commissioner J. B. Killebrew : 



I will not stop to demonstrate what is manifest to all that the 

 South, from her sparse population, her widespread plantations, her 

 adaptation to and her predilection for the cultivation of certain of 

 our great Southern staples, is not at this time and may never be in 

 a condition to keep up her arable lands by animal manures alone, 

 and that her only alternative is in green crops turned under foe 

 renovating and increasing the productive capacity of her foil. 



In estimating the relative manurial values of green crops to 

 bring up the productive capacity of our soils, we measure by the 

 amount of crop produced in the shortest time, the elements upon 

 which these crops feed, their capacity for returning plant food to 

 the earth, and especially by their leaving more or less of those ele- 

 ments in the soil which are necessary to the production of the suc- 

 ceeding crop. Nor do we omit to estimate their several capacitiea 



