If the crop is grown for canning purposes it is drawn to the factory immediately after being cut. Formerly it was customary to pick the pods con taining the peas by hand-labor in the fields and de liver these only at the factory, but more recently the difficulty of securing sufficient laborers to do this work and the introduction of pea threshers that successfully shell and separate green peas from the vines has led to delivering the whole crop to the factory.
Peas are usually threshed by machinery, though when only a small quantity is grown annually they may well be threshed by using a flail. This avoids breaking the seed. In handling larger quantities, machine threshing becomes advisable. A "bar con cave" with most of the spikes removed is best, and the cylinder should he run at a low rate of speed to avoid splitting the peas as much as possible. If the grain is intended for stock-feeding the amount split is unimportant, but when intended for seed or the market the breaking of the grain lessens its value. The regular bean thresher does more satis factory work on peas than the ordinary grain thresher.
The general method of pea-culture outlined above is applicable whatever may be the intended use of the grain. The varieties to be planted will vary with the purposes for which they are grown.
Uses.
Stock-feed.—The uses of the pea crop are numer ous. In Canada it is much more largely grown as a general farm crop than in the United States. The grain has a high feeding value owing to its relatively high content of protein. As part of the grain ration of horses, fattening cattle, milch cows, sheep and swine, peas are unexcelled. When fed to sheep or brood sows in winter, peas do not require to be ground. For all other stock it is advan tageous to grind them, though sometimes they are soaked in water for feeding to swine. When intended for stock-feeding, peas are frequently grown with oats. The combined crop will usually have a greater total value than would be produced by either alone. When so grown, about one and one-half bushels of oats should be sown with one bushel of peas per acre. (Fig. 733.) Pea-straw, if well cured, is more relished by horses, cattle and sheep than the straw of other grain crops. Indeed, if not allowed to become too mature before cutting, nor weather-beaten in the curing, it more nearly approaches clover hay in nutritive quality and palatability than ordinary straw.
Peas sown with oats or barley afford excellent pasturage for sheep and swine, but unfortunately produce best growth at the season when the grass pastures are at their best. For large stock such pasturage is not so satisfactory, as the peas are easily injured by the tramping of larger animals. Sown in this way and cut just before the peas are full-grown, they produce an excellent soiling crop, and are much used to bridge over the interval between the shortening up of grass pasture and when corn is ready for use. By sowing at inter vals of ten days, a supply of green forage may he provided for several weeks. Any surplus not needed for green forage may he cut and cured for hay.
In common with other leguminous plants the pea is especially rich in protein, and much of its agri cultural value is due to this fact. The following table gives approximately the digestible nutrients in the products named : Soil enricher.—Since peas, like other legumes, have the power of obtaining nitrogen from the atmosphere and placing it within reach of other plants, they are much used in some places as a green-manure crop. Some persons assert that land from which a crop of peas has been harvested is richer in nitrogen than it was before the crop was grown. Peas are frequently used for sowing in apple orchards, the common Canada field-peas being suitable for this purpose. The orchard is plowed shallow very early in the season and, when the peas are beginning to ripen, pigs are turned into the orchard to harvest the crop, and the larger the pea crop and the smaller the drove of hogs, the longer will the peas last. The principal growth of the peas is made in spring when there is plenty of moisture. The pea crop is made by the middle of July and does not draw on the moisture supply in the orchard after that date, when the moisture is needed by the apple trees. [See page 506, Vol. I.] Seed-peas.—When produced for the supply of the seed trade, peas are usually grown on contract, the jobber supplying the planting stock and agreeing to buy the crop at a specified price. The peas are received at the seed houses and pre pared for market by recleaning and hand-picking in the same way that beans are prepared.