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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ON THE PEA CROP. 



The committee to whom was referred a re- 

 port on the value of the pea crop for food and 

 for manure, have approached the subject with 

 a full sense of its great importance to the 

 whole system of Southern agriculture. It 

 embraces within its influence results of the 

 highest and most desirable character in the 

 reproduction of soils, in rearing and sustain- 

 ing all the domestic animals connected with 

 the plantation, and furnishes a^-heap, healthy 

 and nutritious article for human consumption. 

 Leguminous plants constitute an extensive 

 ■family in the vegetable kingdom, embracing 

 many genera and species, extending from the 

 rattle-box, including clover, lucerne and sain- 

 foin, to the locust of the forest. 



In Northern latitudes, clover has long held 

 its proper place as an agent in the restoration 

 of soil, and as food for domestic animals ; and 

 •■like the pea, its high character not only de- 

 pends on its nutritive properties, its porous 

 and easily decomposed leaf and stem, but, as 

 your committee will hereafter show, on a de- 

 posit of certain substances to the soil, not ne- 

 cessary to the perfect maturity of its seeds, 

 but of the highest importance to the whole 

 cereal crop, and particularly to wheat. The 

 pea has long been cultivated in this district, 

 and now forms no inconsiderable item in the 

 provision crop; and yet, from the wasteful 

 way in which the crop is consumed, its real 

 value as food cannot be properly appreciated. 



To illustrate the value of the pea as food, 

 the committee will give its value compared 

 with other articles of food, as analyzed by 

 different chemists. Einhoff gives the nutri- 

 tive matter of peas compared with grain as 

 follows, per bushel : wheat, 74.47 ; rye, 70.39 ; 

 barley, 63.33 ; oats, 58.23 ; beans, 68,45 ; 

 peas, 75.49. The same chemist, from 3,840 

 parts of beans, obtained, starch 1,805 parts; 

 albumen 851; mucilage, &c. 799 parts It 

 is believed that the nutriment property of the 

 fcean diners but little from that of the pea. 



Br. Playfair, whose analyses we will sub- 

 mit, states that the nutrient principles of 

 plants are gluten and albumen, and that they 

 chemically differ in nothing from the white 

 of an egg. the muscle of an ox, or the blood 

 of sheep. He divides food into two kinds : 

 azotized and unazotized; that is, with or 

 without nitrogen; the azotized is the prin- 

 ciple forming muscular and other tissues, and 

 the unazotized such as starch, mucilage, su- 

 gar, oil, &c", the fat forming principle. 



From 100 pounds of peas he obtained 

 water 16, organic matter 80 ashes 3£ ; from 

 "sOO pounds of beans he obtained, water- 14, 



organic matter 82$, ashes 3£; from 100 lbs. 

 of oats he obtained, water 18, organic matter 

 19, ashes 3. 



The same chemist shows the equivalent 

 value of several articles of food by analysis. 

 From 100 pounds of flesh he obtained gluten 

 29; from 100 pounds of blood he obtained 

 gluten 29; from 100 pounds of peas he ob- 

 tained gluten 29, unazotized matter 51 J; 

 from 100 pounds of beans he obtained gluten 

 29, unazotized matter 52; from 100 pounds 

 of oats lie obtained gluten 10 J, unazotized 

 matter 68. The analysis of Indian corn by 

 Dr. Dance gave to the 100 pounds, starch, 

 sugar and oil 88,33; 100 pounds gluten and 

 albumen 1.26; 100 water, 9.00; 100 pound? 

 salts, 1.3 1. 



From the above analysis it is most apparent 

 that the pea is not surpassed in value for food 

 by .any known article, when the flesh and fat 

 forming principles are taken together. 



The usuul way of feeding the pea, in an 

 uncrushed state lessens its value as food, and 

 is sometimes dangerous from the high fermen- 

 tation which takes place before and during 

 assimilation; the large quantity of carbonic 

 acid gas disengaged frequently produces eho- 

 lic and inflammation of the intestines, which 

 would never occur if the pea was crushed 

 into meal and fed with cut straw. 



' Nature uses the surface of the earth as a 

 great laboratory, in which there is a constant 

 chemical action going on in the restoration of 

 the soil and in the production of certain sub- 

 stances necessary for the support of organic 

 life, vegetable and animal. The earth is in- 

 organic, possesses no positive life, no period 

 of growth, perfection or decline ; is governed 

 by no law, except that of affinity, and is 

 hence completely under the intellectual and 

 physical control of man, in the application of 

 those substances necessary to its greatest fer- 

 tility. Vegetable matter is more or less valu- 

 able as a manure, in proportion to its suscep- 

 tibility to decomposition, and the gases and 

 other constituents they impart to the soil. 



Ligneous fibre is insoluble in water, &n<$ 

 in almost any other menstruum, under ordi- 

 nary circumstances ; the acids are decomposed 

 on it, and a change of color is the only result. 

 When perfectly dried, it resists fermentation 

 altogether, and air and water decompose k 

 exceedingly slowly. Although the gramineous 

 and cereal classes are destitute of the ligneous » 

 fibre, so large a quantity of .silex enters inio 

 the composition of their epidermis to give . 

 strength to the plants, and protect them fro:», 

 the ravages of parasites and insects, that they 

 are as impervious to the... .agents uf <Wcv 



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