Irrigated Agriculture in the San Luis Valley 
23 
of feed. A quantity of the peas themselves is lost by tramping into 
the soil. There is another disadvantage: A five days’ snowstorm 
quickly burying the peas in the field may cause more loss to the 
animals than they.could gain in twenty days’ grazing. Sooner or 
later all growers must practice cutting their peas, because, if for 
no other reason, they can get very much more feed off the same 
acreage where the peas are cut and properly taken care of than 
when they are grazed in the field. x\nother very decided advantage 
exists in cutting. Pea fields are often very weedy, especially with 
sunflowers, so that the crop following peas is liable tO' be troubled 
with weeds. Where the peas are cut and stacked this difficulty is 
not important, as cutting gets rid of the weeds, also leaving the land 
in shape so that it may be plowed and prepared for spring crops. 
Pea-Grain Mixtures .—What has been said in regard to the 
preparation of the., seed-bed and irrigation for peas applies equally 
well to pea grain mixtures. Mixtures which have been used ex¬ 
tensively consist of pea-oat; pea-barley; pea-oat-barley; pea-wheat 
and pea-wheat-barley. One of the advantages of planting grain 
with peas is that the peas more or less thinly occupy the land and 
some other growth will be present anyhow, consequently the grow¬ 
er might just as well harvest a desirable feed by planting some of 
these grains with peas. Peas make a nitrogenous feed stuff and 
consequently make a very narrow ration, but when planted with 
grain mixtures a feed is harvested which is much more nearly bal¬ 
anced. Thus not only the tonnages are increased, but a better feed 
is produced. 
For pea-oat mixtures on new lands, heavier avnounts of seed 
will be needed than on land which has been growing peas for some 
time. A mixture of about forty-five pounds of peas with twenty 
to twenty-five pounds of oats; forty-five pounds of peas to twenty 
pounds of barley; forty-five pounds of peas to fifteen pounds of oats 
and fifteen pounds of barley; forty-five pounds of peas and twenty 
pounds of wheat; forty-five pounds of peas and fifteen pounds of 
wheat and fifteen pounds of barley are about right for new lands. 
On old lands, thirty to forty pounds of peas should be used with 
fifteen to twenty-five pounds of oats; fifteen to twenty pounds of 
barley, and fifteen to twenty pounds of wheat. 
Early seeding is as important with pea grain mixtures as it is 
with peas alone. Oats may be killed out by frosts on exceedingly 
early seedings, but usually barley and wheat will withstand frosts. 
This has been the experience in experimental work with such mix¬ 
tures. 
The pea-grain mixtures should be harvested in the same man¬ 
ner as peas, and should be either stacked or put into the silo. The 
