(130) 



ent day have been entwined with the wheat and fruit, crown- 

 ing the brow of beneficent Ceres. Now, these mainsprings 

 of successful agriculture in our favored land are but half 

 appreciated, and are thrust aside by the impatient tiller of 

 the soil for some other crop supposed to bring in more im- 

 mediate money profits, but which, in its continued drafts 

 upon the fertility of the soil, must end in the bankruptcy as 

 well as the ruin of its possessor. 



In a previous letter to you I stated some of the advantages 

 which the field pea possessed even over its great fellow-la- 

 borer, red clover, as a fertilizer. 



1. The pea will thrive upon land too poor to grow clover. 



2. That it will produce a heavy and rich crop to be re- 

 turned to the soil in a shorter period than any vegetable 

 fertilizer known. 



3. That two crops can be produced on the same ground 

 in one year, whereas it requires two years for clover to give 

 a hay crop and good aftermath for turning under. In this 

 time Four crops of peas can be made. 



4. That the pea feeds but lightly upon, and hence leaves 

 largely in the soil, those particular elements necessary to a 

 succeeding grain crop, and the pea lay, in its decay, puts 

 back largely into the soil those very elements required for 

 a vigorous growth of the cereals. 



5. There is no crop which is its equal for leaving the soil 

 in the very best condition for a succeeding wheat crop. 



6. It is the only crop raised in the South so rapid in its 

 growth and perfection as to be made an intervening manu- 

 rial crop between grain cut in the spring and grain sowed 

 in the fall upon the same ground. And this alone makes 

 the pea invaluable to Southern agriculture. 



7. In our particular latitude it flourishes equally with 

 clover, and with two such renovators of the soil (aside from 

 their value as food crops), no portion of the earlh is equally 

 blessed. North of us the pea does not succeed; South, the 

 clover fails 



