Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 1907. FARMERS FACTORS OF WEALTH. THE VALUE OF THE FIELD PEA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 30 September 1907, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 1907. FARMERS FACTORS OF WEALTH. THE VALUE OF THE FIELD PEA.

IN continuation of the scrips of articles for farmers appearing in this journal from time to time, we publish below some of the latest details of experiments and suggestions with regard to the value and use of the field pea on the farm, for market, for stock f:od, and as a means of enriching the soil.

The great value of field peas in the economy of the farm has long been recognised in a few of the American States, not alone because they furnish one of the best grains for fattening "rowing animals, but because they are not exacting as to methods of soil preparation or time of seeding, and because a crop can be removed leaving the soil richer in nitrogen than it was before. Peas are rich in muscle and blood and bone-making constituents, and they are therefore well adapted for all growing animals or animals at work. Experiments at the Utah and South Dakota stations of the American Agricultural Bureau have shown that it requires less peas to produce a pound of pork than when corn is fed. In other words, peas, pound for pound, produce a greater gain with growing hogs than when corn is fed, and the pork produced is often firmer and of better finality. For fattening cattle, peas are unexcelled. It is certain also that in the early stages of the fattening of all farm animals, before full maturity is reached, there is no better ration than peas. Furthermore, pea straw, when properly cured, is better and more relished by horses, cattle, and sheep, than the straw of any of the olher small grains. Vines cut with a pea-harvester, while still a little green, then well cured and put up without beeing drenched with rain, approach clover in feeding value. Grown for hogs and sheep, however, peas need not bo run through a cutting box, but can bo fed, vines and all, sheep especially being well able to do their own threshing.

The Special Commissioner of tin Melbourne "Leader," who is now in thf United States, sends a very interesting account of field pea experiments with regard to conversion into fodder for sheep. His inquiries were made chiefly in the San Louis Valley of Wyoming, which claims to be the most important district in America, in connection with this particular method of raising lambs. The San Louis Valley is 7000 ft. above sea level, and here in a single season close upon 300,000 lambs are fattened on field peas. There is one special advantage about the field pea, that it will grow in much colder and more uncertain climates thai, corn. The growing season in San Louts Valley is short, but the peas develop rapidly. They are sown in early spring with a grain drill, and from 40 to 501 b., together with a slight mixture of wheat or oats, are sown to the acre. Ke seed is mixed before being put in the drill, the cerealf being used to give support to the pea crop. Sheep ar« turned on to the crop so soon as the peas are well podded. but not too ripe. Lambs get topped off within 70 to 90 days, and they increase in weight at the rate of 81b. a month, one acre of good crop being estimated to fatten 10 to 15 lambs. A system of moveable hurdles in adopted, to confine the. lambs to one section of the paddock, until the peas have been eaten off ; this is found to be a more profitable practice than allowing them to wander at will over the whole area. Apparently, lou, the risk of bloating experienced when finishing o0 lambs on rape is not here nearly so great. !

Sometimes broadcasting the peas and grain mixture is substituted for drilling, and under such conditions the seedins: is about a bnshe) an acre each of the peas and wheat or oats. In the broadcasting plan the poas are ploughed in lightly, and the other grain is sown \nd covered by means of the harrows. Peas and oats and peas and barley are grown as a pasture for pigs in the same manner as tor sheep. But for thif nnrpose it is found necessary to reduce he proportion of the peas when the grazing is to begin at an early stage in the growth of the plants, for pig? are more severe in breaking down the plants than sheep. The season is extended whether sown for sheep or pigs by sowings at successive intervals.

Many varieties are sown, but according to the authority quoted, they are •ill modifications of 'what is known as the Canada pca — a term which refers U> nearly 200 varieties, most of which •liffer greatly from one another in growth, habit, yield, etc. In Ontario, apparently, a series of tests has proved 'hat three varieties are worth special attention, vjz., Canadian Beauty, Prus-

sian Blue, and Tall White Marrowfat. It does not follow, however, that Australasian conditions would furnish tln> same- results. White Wonder, a variety imported from New Zealand into •\merica, has given very good results, while some growers speak very highly of the flolden Vine.

Where peas are not required for feedin" stock harvesting is done in Wyoming by means of an attachment fitted to an" ordinary mower. The guards in front lift the peas so that the knife makes a clean cut, and the cut peas fall behind the mower in a row, while men with forks lift the swathe ont ot the tracks of the horses. Three men and a team can harvest ten acres a day. On rear-cut mowers, a platform is often used, but this apparatus is apparently best adapted to very level land. The common practice is to turn over the clumps of pea haulm once, to quicken the drying process, while they lie on the ground, and thence they are pitched into the waggon dierct, without using either the hay rake or the revolving rake. Care is always taken to thatch thoroughly, immediately after stacking, otherwise- a pea stack receives rain like a sponge, and is soon destroyed.

Finally, it may be mentioned that sometimes stock "do not take readily to pea straw, but the- scon acquire a taste for it. When well cured pea straw is almost equal to lucerne hay in nutriment. The. straw is eaten lr.ore readily by stock when it is harvested under-ripe. But it is a "tip" worth knowing that when harvested with the Old- fashioned revolving horse-rake so nm.-h soil adheres t« tho itr,,«- tli.-il « lio fodder so damaged is not relished by any Mass of stock. The conditions in Wyoming and the Nelson, district am very similar, and it may pay our farmers to Rive more attention to field peas for fattening stock. The seed difficulty prevents the cultivation of field peas becoming more general than it is in America; but Wyoming gets over the trouble by growing its own supply of seed, which i 9 kept strictly for local requirements, very little being sent out of the State.