740 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ARID AGRICULTURE 



BY 

 B. C. BUFFUM, M. S. 



Manager of the Wyoming Plant and Seed Breeding Company, 



Worland. Former Professor of Agriculture in the Tjni- 



versity of Wyoming and the Colorado Agricultural 



College, and Director of the Wyoming 



Agricultural Experiment 



Station. 



Prof. B. C. lUiffum. 

 ties of Canada peas. 



Hay and Forage Crops. 



The Canada field pea is per- 

 haps one of the most important 

 and valuable crops, both for forage 

 and grain, that has been introduced 

 into the West. It is both valuable 

 for irrigation farming and dry 

 farming. In some sections the field 

 pea has revolutionized the agricul- 

 ture. This is true in the San Luis 

 Valley, of Colorado, where the 

 raising of Mexican field peas and 

 the fattening of lambs on them has 

 largely taken the place of grain 

 farming. 



There are a good many varie- 

 The Mexican is a mixed or mongrel 



sort, which is largely grown in Colorado. The White 

 Canada has given us the best results in all our experi- 

 ments. There are several strains of these White Canada 

 peas. We are now growing some from Sweden, France, 

 England, Germany and other places, and some of these 

 strains are far more productive than the common ones 

 obtained from Canada or Wisconsin. Other forms of field 

 peas offered by seedmen are Green Canada, Blue Scotch- 

 man, and several forms of garden varieties, like the White 

 and Blackeyed Marrowfat. The Golden Vine is one of the 

 best known varieties. 



At higher altitudes, where the seasons are cool, 

 field peas do well on almost any kind of soil. At lower 

 altitudes, where the summer is hot, the cold, heavier soils 

 give better results. Under systems of dry farming sandy 

 soils which retain the most moisture are the best. 



Planting Peas. 



Peas are a good crop for either old land or sod, and 

 they may be planted in a variety of ways. Good results 

 are sometimes obtained from sowing them broadcast on 

 the sod and covering them with the breaking plow, but 

 such method cannot be recommended. They may be 

 disced in or planted and covered by any method used for 

 other seeds. The best way is to use the press drill. Forced 

 feed drills will often crack some of the seeds; but the 

 saying made by drilling the seed is very great in spite of 

 this fact. Many of the split peas will grow, and the seed 

 put in the ground with a drill will be well planted. They 

 may be sown from one inch to four inches deep. 



Field peas should be planted as early in the spring as 

 the ground can be prepared. In some places where the 

 ground is dry, the seed may be sown late enough in the 

 fall so that it will not germinate. At lower altitudes, 

 where the season is long, the peas may be sown as late as 

 the first or middle of July, and they will get large enough 

 in the fall either to produce forage or to be plowed under 

 to increase the humus and nitrogen in the soil. The best 

 time, however, is to plant as early in spring as possible. 

 February is not too early, if the ground is thawed out. 



Peas are easy things to cultivate. On the dry farm, 

 under the two-year system, all they will need is a harrow- 

 ing with a drag-tooth harrow after they have come up. 

 Under irrigation peas may be managed at the pleasure of 

 the farmer. The pea is what the botanist calls an indeter- 

 minate grower, i. e., it grows, blooms, and ripens seed as 

 long as there is moisture and absence of hard, freezing 

 weather. 



The amount of irrigation will depend upon the length 

 of the season, and somewhat, also, on the heat of the sum- 

 mer. Where summers are hot, flood irrigating will blister 



or otherwise injure the pea plant. Furrow irrigation is 

 better. They may be kept growing by irrigating often 

 enough to keep the soil moist. We have found that on 

 good, loamy soil four irrigations gave a yield of ripened 

 peas of 34J4 bushels per acre, and. about four tons of vines, 

 while seven irrigations gave a little larger growth in vine, 

 but only nineteen bushels of peas, because they did not 

 get ripe. On account of its adaptability to different soils, 

 different ways of planting, ease of farm management and 

 response to dry farm methods or irrigating practice, the 

 field pea is one of the easiest managed crops. 



Feeding Value of Peas. 



The pea is both forage and a grain crop. Pea hay 

 properly made is a roughage unexcelled by any other. 

 Poorly made pea hay is poor stuff. Good pea hay is a 

 valuable feed for any kind of live stock. It has been found 

 that over-ripe pea hay, pea straw, or that which has been 

 spoiled in the stack, is dangerous to horses, cattle, pigs or 

 sheep, because it causes indigestion and impaction. These 

 troubles are absent when properly made and cured hay is 

 fed. The threshed peas are highly nitrogenous food. They 

 are specially valuable for young, growing stock. Except 

 for lambs or pigs which have good teeth and can grind 

 their food, peas should be chopped or ground. Pea hay 

 which contains ripe and partly ripe peas will make the 

 horses slick and shiny in the spring and will put good fat 

 on any kind of stock. 



In many parts of the West the cheapest and best 

 method of harvesting the field pea is to pasture with stock. 

 In the San Luis Valley, and other places, lambs to be fat- 

 tened are turned on the pea fields early in October. and 

 allowed to run for about one hundred days. These lambs 

 may be followed by pigs, which clean up the waste peas 

 that have been shelled out and trampled under foot. The 

 best method is to use hurdles, or division fences, so the 

 stock will not run over and tramp down all the peas during 

 the first feeding period. They should have fresh food and 

 the best supply at the end of their fattening period, and 

 this can only be secured by using a part of the field at a 

 time. By this method of feeding the expense of harvest- 

 ing and handling the crop is saved. All that is necessary is 

 to see that the animals are supplied with proper water and 

 salt. 



An acre of peas that makes a good crop will feed and 

 fatten eight to twelve lambs and leave a considerable sup- 

 ply of peas for the hogs which follow. 



Such feeding leaves all the manure on the ground and 

 spreads it at the same time. With the nitrogen gathering 

 of the peas and the manure of the animals, soils used in 

 this manner are continually enriched. Sheep will do well 

 on peas even where some snow covers them. When the 

 snow is too deep a plow can be run through, breaking 

 furrows and lifting the peas so that the sheep can get to 

 them. 



Pulling or Mowing the Crop. 



If it is desired to put the peas in stack, either for the 

 saving of seed or to feed as pea hay, or to be threshed for 

 grain, they may be pulled with the old-fashioned dump 

 rake, or sometimes with an ordinary hay rake. If peas 

 are mowed, a guard attachment should be put on the mow- 

 ing machine which will lift the vines. A man should follow 

 with a fork and throw the vines in bunches or wind-rows, 

 away from the machine, so that the horses will not tramp 

 over them on the second round. 



The best method of hauling peas to the stack is by 

 the use of sleds and slings. If threshed for seed, a special 

 threshing machine must be used or they must be flailed or 

 tramped out. The ordinary cylinder machine will not only 

 split the peas, but make pea meal of them in our dry 

 climate where the grain gets brittle. 



Many eastern writers make a strong point of the value 

 of growing field peas in connection with some grain, gen- 

 erally oats. It is usually claimed that the grain helps hold 

 up the peas and increases the efficiency of both crops as 

 food. Our experiences indicates that in most places it 

 will pay better to grow the peas and the grain separately. 

 The grain is apt to grow more rapidly than the peas in the 

 early part of the season, and its effect in shading and 

 crowding the pea vines usually produces small growth or 

 entirely smothers them. The combination for feed of pea 



