268 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



THE FIELD PEA AS A FORAGE CROP, 



By H. N. Vinall, Agronomist, Office of Forage Crop Investiga- 

 tions, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Introduction. 



The field pea is an annual plant with slender stems 2 to 4 

 feet high, which stand erect only where there are other plants to 

 which they can cling. The plants seldom have more than three 

 stalks and very often only one or two. The herbage is pale green 

 with a whitish bloom on the surface. Each leaf bears usually 

 two or three pairs of leaflets and is terminated by a slender, 

 branched tendril. The flowers are reddish purple, parti-colored 

 or white, mostly two or three to each flower stalk. The hanging 

 pods are about 3 inches long, each containing five to nine nearly 

 round seeds. 



The garden pea is cultivated primarily as a green vegetable, 

 or as a grain crop for human food; the field pea is grown for 

 hay or for grain to feed to animals. In many cases, however, 

 the same variety is grown for both purposes. 



Generally speaking, the varieties with wrinkled yellowish or 

 greenish seeds and white flowers are classed as garden peas; 

 while those with smooth seeds are considered field peas. Some 

 field-pea varieties have yellow seeds and white flowers, while 

 others have colored blossoms and brown, marbled, mottled, or 

 speckled seeds. 



Some confusion of name has arisen in this country because 

 in the South the cowpea is often called the field pea, while in the 

 same region the garden pea is distinguished as the English pea. 

 The cowpea is really a bean, resembling the common bean both 

 in its leaves with three large leaflets and no tendrils and in it$ 

 kidney-shaped seeds. Further, on account of the fact that the 

 true field pea is more largely grown in Canada than in the Unit- 



