CULTURE OF THE PEA. 275 



This is specially true of the bean and the pea crop. While 

 on the subject of manuring and preparing the soil, it is 

 necessary to note that the experience of many farmers 

 shows that it is a somewhat unsafe practice to sow the seed 

 on a newly-manured soil ; inasmuch as the plants are more 

 apt to run to stalk or haulm than to produce seed. When 

 of course the plants are grown, as they sometimes are, to 

 be cut green for fodder in place of vetches, then this plan 

 of sowing en newly-manured soil is beneficial. 



71. Where soils are not in good condition it might be 

 well to give them two good ploughings, the first having 

 for aim the cleaning, and this to be followed by a cross- 

 harrowing, the second ploughing to lay the land up in the 

 drills. The drills in heavy soil should not be deep, as the 

 seed is apt to rot ; in light soils the drills should be made 

 deeper. Where the pea crop is taken upon a clover lea, 

 one ploughing is found to be sufficient. 



72. The depth to which the seed is to be sown is a 

 matter of some importance : it should never exceed two 

 and a half inches two inches being, as a rule, a safe 

 depth. 



73. In close connection with the point now under 

 notice, we must refer to the difference of opinion there is 

 as to whether the weeds in a field of pease are best kept 

 down when the seed is drilled or broadcasted. One 

 eminent practical authority states that a larger crop will 

 be secured by broadcasting, and of course fewer weeds, 

 than by drilling, because the fewer the wide spaces the 

 less room there is for weeds coming up. On the other 

 hand, if a field is badly infested with weeds as, say, 

 the wild mustard or thistles, which will come up along 

 with the pease there can be no doubt of this, that the 

 drilling system affords opportunities of attacking the weeds 

 at the early stages of their growth, which is an immensely 

 valuable feature in the war against weeds. So far as 

 broadcasting is concerned, the thicker growth of the pease 

 which the system secures, seems to act as a preventive of 

 weeds, simply as tending to overshadow or overgrow them. 



