296 SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



Yield. — Variations in weights of measured bushels range from fifty- 

 seven to sixty-five pounds. The standard weight is sixty pounds. Beans 

 yield all the way from five to thirty-five bushels per acre. There is usually 

 no profit in a ten-bushel crop. According to the last census the average 

 yield per acre was fourteen bushels. 



Field Peas. — The Canada field peas, described in the preceding chap- 

 ter, are extensively grown in Canada and a few of the Northern states for 

 the dried peas. These are adapted to a wide range of uses as feed for 

 livestock. They also furnish the supply of seed for all localities where the 

 crop is grown for forage purposes. 



Peas are very high in protein and are especially adapted as feed for 

 young stock and for the production of milk and butter. When given with 

 oats and bran to cows in milk, they may constitute from one-third to one- 

 half of the concentrates fed. 



When harvested for seed, the vines are cut with a mowing machine 

 to which special guards are attached for lifting them from the ground. 

 There is also a device attached to the rear of the cutting bar, which leaves 

 the vines in a swath far enough from the standing peas to enable the team 

 and machine to work without tramping the peas. It is customary to cut 

 when two-thirds of the pods are yellow. 



When dry the peas should be stacked under cover or threshed immedi- 

 ately with a pea huller or with an ordinary threshing machine in the same 

 manner as described for field beans. 



The legal weight of field peas is sixty pounds to the bushel. They are 

 quite prolific and under favorable conditions will yield forty bushels to the 

 acre. At Guelph, Ontario, eight varieties during eleven years gave an 

 average yield of 31.5 bushels per acre. Four varieties at Ottawa averaged 

 34.4 bushels for five years, while six varieties grown for five years in three 

 other localities averaged 40, 41 and 41.2 bushels respectively per acre. 



The most suitable varieties to grow depend somewhat on soil and 

 climatic conditions. Three good all-around varieties are Prussian Green, 

 Canadian Beauty and White Marrowfat. 



Cowpeas. — The seed of cowpeas has been very little used as feed, 

 because the price has been too high to justify its use in this way. The 

 introduction of suitable harvesting and threshing machinery should make it 

 possible to produce grain of the more prolific varieties at prices that' will 

 put it in reach for feeding purposes. At present practically all" of 

 cowpea seed is used for seeding purposes, the price ranging from $2 to 

 $4 per bushel. 



The dried shelled peas contain 26 per cent of protein, 1.5 per cent of 

 fat and 63 per cent of nitrogen free extract. A comparatively low rainfall 

 is favorable to seed production. Continuous wet weather causes a develop- 

 ment of vines at the expense of seed. At one of the southern experiment 

 stations during a series of five years, the yield of peas with a yearly rainfall 

 of 62 inches was only 12 bushels per acre, whereas, with only 22 inches of 



