THE GROWTH AND UTILITY OF A PEA CROP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1900, 3 July 1890, Page 6

THE GROWTH AND UTILITY OF A PEA CROP.

Evenatthe almost unprecedentedly low prices —2£dl per lb wholesale—ruling for pork, it is satisfactory to learn that this season farmers who have acquired experience and understand the business have succeeded in making a fair profit by pig keeping. But the profits have been much curtailed by the lowering of prices in April, May, and June oonsequeut oa the usual annual oversupplies of piga in the markets. The ordinary management is to give the fattening pigs a run on the stubbles, where a variety of Bucculent herbage, scattered ears, and shed grain effect a rapid improvement in the condition of the animals. The gleanings of the stubbles exhausted, roots and small grain must be had recourse to, and when the latter is all consumed tha porkers and baconers must be sold. The exhaustion of the small supplies of inferior grain feed v. ordmatily general at about the same period of the year, and the consequences are supplies for the time being of well-fed pigs are much m exoeas of de mand, and extremely low prices are the almost inevitable result. The worst of the evil is that the pigs have to be parted with when a modicum of food daily would keep them on in the desired growth and condition till late in the winter, when baoon curers having realised on early stocks are again in a position to invest, and invariably fail to prooure adequate supplies of the raw material at much enhanced values. The subject is brought under the notice of farmers now because m a recent conversation with a member of the firm of Nimmo and Blair it transpired that they have had many inquiries lately for partridge and grey peas, buyers of the seeds profesßintf their intention to grow a sufficiency which will enable them to winter-feed a larger number than heretofore of bacon pigs and keep them for favourable markets. The belief obtainß generally, and with some reason, that pigs do not pay for any but waste foods on a farm: but evidently numbers of very shrewd farmers are not so impressed, else they would not contemplate'growing special foods for pig feed. In this colony where—except until lately wool and mutton—tha prevailing values of animal products are exceedingly low, the profitable growth of crops for consumption by live stock on farma must greatly depend on cost of production as well as suitability for the required purpose. No Btock-food customarily grown more nearly fulfills the condition* imperative here than will an average crop of peas, for although thorough cultivation and fine tilth fortbe seed are indispensable, no manure is raqmred, and the pea crop instead of exhausting, renovates and greatly helps to clean a foul soil. An average crop of peas may be expected to yield 35 bushels per aore, a little over that of S bo far as regajd^ number of bushels but tho bushel of pcae is 601b weight, while that of oats ia 401b, so that the respective yields per

acre arg— peas, 21001b ; oats, calculated at 32 bußhels per acre, 12801b; and bariey, say 35 bußhels of 501b, 17501b. A table published Rome yearß ago by Professor Tanner in the Bath and Weßt of England Society's Journal showing the relative feeding values of a variety of stock foods, consumed under_ favourable oiroumstancos and as proved practically in the production of meat (beef), gives 61b of barley, or 71b of oats, or 81b of peas as the equivalent for the production of lib of meat. According to this scale, then, and accepting the above average productions aB approximately correot, the yield in grain of an acre of barley should supply material for the production of 29 2 31b meat, an acre of oats 182 6-71b, and an aore of peas 262 Mb. Regarding these figures, it has to be observed that the action of concentrated foods Buch as the above m the systems of the animals fed is a good deal dependent on the grosser foods supplied at tbo same time, and results vary accordingly. Even a mixture of concentrated foods has been found in practice to be both more economical and more effective than one component of the mixture given singly in whatever quantity and howover highly nutritious. As, for example, in Professor Tanner's table the ascertained feeding value of linseed cake in stated at 51b or 61b to lib of meat j but in the same list, 4£lb of mixture in equal parts of linseed cake and peas are sufficient for the production of lib of meat, It may be more satisfactory, however, to give the following figureß extracted from the table referred to, as showing the proximate composition of com monly used "concentrated foodB" and their feeding values :—

[Regarding the nitrogenised and non-nitro-genised components of foods as stated above, it is necessary to observe that the food theory propounded by Liebig, and for many years accepted and upheld, that the nutritious properties of foods is in proportion to tboir nitrogenous constituent, has been shown to be erroneous by recent scientific research, confirmed by extended practical experience. To quote a well-known authority : "It has been made abundantly evident that before a food can be in the fnll Benae of the term a nutritive one, it must be a combination of both the nitrogenous and the non nitrogenous substanoes." Again, concentrated foods such a 8 grain, pulse, &0., though given in very small proportion to the grosser materials in the necessary rations for stook, show very distinot and dissimilar, effects on the animal system, and have a more or less potent influence in promoting the digestion and assimilation of less nutritive but bulky matter. In this latter particular pea and bean foods have had a singularly long sustained repute among experienced feeders of stock in the United Kingdom, who regard them as essential components in mixtures with less easily digestible and less nutritive feed materials. At the meeting in Scotland of the British Dairy Farmers' Association, it was ascertained that in the most noted dairy distriots of that country it is almost the universal practice to give cows in milk a daily allowance of from 31b to 41b per head of poameal mixed with various trough-foods, and the advocates of this system of feeding adduced local and individual experiences as showing that the peameal greatly increased the yiold, and improved the quality of the milk. For over a century pens have been grown specially by English farmers for fatting hogs ; and during the past 60 years beans and peas in one form or another have been extensively fed to sheep with moßt satisfactory results, whether as regards growing or fatting stook, and wool. As all Home butchers very well know, pea or bean food is noted for firming the flesh of animals to which it is fed ; and apparently the knowledge has extended to the colony, for quite recently a local bacon curer assured a farmer from whom he has this season bought a considerable number of " baconers," that he would gladly give per lb, carcass weight, over current prices for pigs fed largely on peameal when fatting. English farmers, who are almost universally fastidious in regard to the quality of bacon for their household use, feed the pigs on pea and barley meal in the proportion of two parts of the former to one of the latter, mixed with a moderate quantity of Bteamed or boiled roots. Furthermore — and a very important consideration for dairy farmers it is ■ very few of the many calf foods recommended for admixture with skim milk as substitutes for whole milk in the rearing of calves surpass peamoal ; indeed it is commonly alleged and believed that in numbers of well advortised calf and cattle foods pea or bean meal, with some condimental stuffs, constitute no small complement of the ingredients. Banking high in the list of nutritious foods, inferentially it might be supposed that peas must therefore be an exhausting orop ,• but the very reverse is the case. In common with other members of the leguminouß family, peas contain nearly twice as much nitrogen— the moat costly ingredient in artificial manures— than is found in the cereals, But applications of nitrogenous manures have little, or at best uncertain, effect on leguminous orops, and farmers have found from experience that manuring directly for them is unnecessary unless liming non-calcareous Boils may be so considered. The question arises, Whence the source of the large amount of nitrogen found in the Beeds, leaves, and hnulm of leguminous plantß? and the answer is that the question haß not yet been definitely determined, although one supposition is that as they have do Bpeoial oapaoity for assimilating nitrogen from the air it is probable they are able to utilise nitrogenous compounds in the soil which are not assimilable by cereals. Moderate applications of mineral manureß, particularly phosphates and combinations of lime, certainly largely increase the produots of leguminous crops grown on old cultivations, but compounds of these are to be found stored in boilb on whioh peas, beans, clovers, lucerne, &c, have been little, if at all, grown. From what baa been stated it will be perceived that legumes make little or no demand on the farmer for manures.and slight consideration will ahow that the growth of peas in this part of the colony should be more extensive than hitherto. The nutritious properties of the seed are undoubted, while every particle of tho growth ih valuable and easily economised. Pea n?mm, carefully harvested, ie more relished by cattle and sheep, especially if out into chaff, than any straws of tho cereals, while sheep show a rare fondness for the pods from the threebor, a foot that may be ascertained by spreading out a few bags full to a flock on the pastures. The preparatory cultivation for peas in comparatively inexpensive, and being ho is too frequently negligently performed. The soil Buould to thoroughly stirred and pvilvwiaed

to a depth of at least Gin or 7m. The seed should bo drilled in, the oover varying from 3in on strong to sin on extremely light soils. Broadcasting peas is a too oommon practice, as the cover is insufficient, and birds prey upon tha seed. An excellent method of growing peas, long followed by Home farmers, is to drill in double rows 15ia apart with a 2ft space batwaen the double rows. This Bpace admits the uso of the horse hoe, while one hand-boe-ing will keep down the weeds between the double rows until the foliage intertwining smothers undergrowth of weeds, and the rows are then mutually supporting. When the plants are sufficiently high, and before they begin to!fall, they should be slightly earthed up by the double mould-plate plough; this will keep them off tho ground until they bloom and form the pods. Only choice seed should be used (about two bushels per acre), as faulty seed invariably produces a scanty, weakly crop, liable to mildew, blight, and worm attaoks. The pea crop must not be permitted to fully ripen before gathering, otherwise there will be great loss, from shedding while handling, and the haulm will be lees valuable for feed purposes, "Jho Bubject haß been disoussed at some length because .the value of a pea orop is not adequately appreciated by farmers in this part of the colony where its cultivation is comparatively untried. Sufficient reasons have been adduced for the recommendation to grow peas for consumption by live stock on the farm, and that tbo innovation in customary management must be attended with profitable resultß.

f Con poelt: ion. | [Petdiug \ 'alue, 5 as Li v IP r i Material. ! 2 o< —?_ lb lb 6 to] 7fcol Btol Btol 50r6t0l ■a v Barley 3ats I 3eans ?eas ... Linseed cake ... Wnseed cake & ppas, equal p'ts 56-00 5505 48 05 50-00 1352 1300 13-06 23-03 23 03 28-66 1483 1208 14-08 1401 806 16-7 14-; i 12-B 125 16 7 31*76 25-93 11-03 I 4f to 1 22*2