266 DRY LAND FARMING 



should be harrowed, the work must be done in a cautious 

 way, otherwise it may harmed more than benefited. 

 When planted in rows wide enough for cultivating be- 

 tween them, such cultivation may be given as soon as 

 the line of the row can be distinctly traced. It should 

 be sufficiently frequent to keep the land clean and to 

 prevent the escape of moisture. It cannot be continued 

 longer than the period when the peas become recumbent. 

 This period is hastened or retarded by the kind of pea, 

 and the character of the wind and rain storms. The short, 

 stocky garden varieties stand best against the influences 

 of storms and may, therefore, be cultivated for a longer 

 period than tall-growing varieties. The garden varieties 

 are usually gone over once by hand, to remove from 

 the rows any plants of a different variety that may be 

 present. 



Harvesting. Peas are ready for being harvested 

 when, say, the lower two-thirds of the pods are fully ripe. 

 When cut at this stage of maturity, the straw makes excel- 

 lent fodder, when cured in the absence of rain. When the 

 crop is grown for the grain and also for the straw, it is 

 best harvested by the aid of a pea-harvester, that is, an 

 attachment fastened on the cutter bar of a field mower. 

 This attachment has guards which run under the pros- 

 trate vines and lift them up so that the knives can cut 

 them. Two work hands follow and bunch them with 

 the aid of forks, at the same time lifting the bunches out 

 "of the way of the horses that draw the mower. In, say, 

 two days of good weather they may be drawn and 

 threshed or stacked, as may be desired. In the Plains 

 country they should be at once lifted when dry, lest 

 the winds should carry the bundles far over the unfenced 

 country. The stacks will not withstand rain as some crops 

 do, unless topped out with some more resistant sub- 

 stance. 



