192 



THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



ure in the soil, will often render a compact and lumpy 

 soil as mellow and lively as a friable loam. When the 

 peas are fed ont to fattening stock, and the manm'e of 

 the animals saved with care, and returned to the soil 

 where the peas grew, the pea crop will always be found 

 an excellent ameliorator of a heavy and poor soil. A 

 crop of green peas will always be found fully equal to a 

 crop of red clover to turn under with the plough as a 

 renovator of a poor soil. Yet I would prefer a crop of 

 Indian corn for such a purpose, as the stalks will furnish 

 more vegetable matter than a crop of peas. (Read the 

 chapter on Manures in my second volume of the Young 

 Farmer's Manual.) 



Peas are a very exhausting crop, when everything is 

 removed from the field and nothing returned to the soil 

 as an equivalent for the crop. But when the peas are 

 all fed out to stock, and their manure saved and applied 

 to the land, peas are an excellent renovator ; and where 

 the soil is heavy, a crop of peas should constitute a 

 prominent one in the rotation system, especially where 

 winter wheat is cultivated. 



Joseph Harris, who resides in one of the finest wheat- 

 growing counties of New York, writes : " In preparing 

 heavy land for wheat, it is still necessary, in many 

 cases, to resort to summer fallows. On the light soils 

 we may take a crop of beans, planted in rows and thor- 

 oughly horse-hoed, and sow wheat afterward. On 

 heavier soils I have seen an excellent crop of wheat 

 follow a crop of peas, which had been sown instead of 

 fallowing. The great drawback to the peas is that they 

 are affected by the bug. But if fed out early to hogs, 

 the bugs do not injure them materially, while they are 

 very fattening and make rich manure. You can com- 



