Peas must not be repeated on the same land in less than 10 or 12 years, nor are they to be recommended on very stiff clays, on which beans are to be preferred. Wherever beans suit the soil, they are a much better preparation for wheat than peas, admitting of much more frequent and perfect hoeing, besides the application of an abundant coat of dung, of which the wheat reaps the benefit as well as the beans.
Peas should be sown as early as the ground will admit of being worked ; and in very mild winters January is a very good time for sowing peas, which are intended to be gathered green, In a sheltered situation sloping towards the south-west. The hog peas may be sown in February or March ; and if they are horse-hoed, and the earth is raised against the young plants, they will not suffer from a moderate frost. When peas are drilled at two feet or more between the rows, it will not take above two bushels to drill an acre. The old method of sowing peas broadcast and ploughing them in is now seldom practised, and to sow them and harrow them in is nowhere recommended ; the birds in this case having much too great a share of the seed. When peas follow clover, the practice of dibbling them into the sward, which has been turned over with the plough, is much to be preferred.
Wherever dibbling is generally practised, and there are sufficient hands to put the seed into the ground in a reasonable time, it should be preferred for every kind of crop that can admit of the hoe in the intervals.
When peas are sown later than usual, it is useful to steep the seed a few hours, in order that it may vegetate the sooner. A week may often be gained in the coming up of the crop by this means.
The Everlasting Pea, which is so well known in our gardens, has been recommended to be cultivated in the fields for green fodder for horses, which are said to eat it readily. In land which has been well manured, it will produce a very great weight of green food ; and there are probably varieties of it more succulent and sweeter than others.
If it could be established in a field, it would produce abundant food for several years in succession, without any other cultivation than hoeing out the weeds and stirring the soil around the plants. The seed should be sown in rows, and the plants thinned out by the hoe, so as to stand a foot or 15 inches apart; they would then have room to grow out, and would cover the ground completely. By transplanting year-old plants, a still greater crop might he obtained. It is at least worth a trial.
Peas should be drilled in rows at such a distance as to admit the horse-hoe between them. They should be horse-hoed repeatedly until the stems are so long as to fall down and cover the intervals : a slight earthing of the rows with a plough has the effect of keeping the stems from the ground and allowing the air to circulate under them, by which the podding is much encouraged ; for in wet seasons the stems are apt to lie on the wet ground and to rot. When the seed is ripe in the pods
on the lower part of the stalks, the crop should be reaped, or many of the pods will burst, and the seed be lost. The reaping is performed by pulling the straw from the root by hand, or by means of two reaping-hooks, which partly tear up the stems, and partly cut them off. They are then gathered Into small loose heaps, and left to dry.
After being turned over till they are quite dry, they are carted to the stack or barn. Unless the quantity be considerable, so as to make a large stack, it is advisable to put them in a barn. When the peas are stacked, many of the pods are necessarily exposed to the depredation of birds; and, if they escape this, they burst, and the seed is lost.
The produce of an acre of good peas is from 30 to 40 bushels, and the price about the same as that of beans. They are consequently a profitable crop, and will well repay a little attention in the cultivation.
If the land is not in sufficient order and heart to make it advisable to sow wheat after the peas, barley or oats may be advantageously substi tuted. If the peas fail, it may be necessary to clean the land with a fallow crop before any other corn is sown, for a bad crop of peas invariably leaves the land foul.
The straw or haulm of peas, when well harvested, makes excellent fodder for cattle, and especially for sheep, which are very fond of the dry pods when the seeds have been thrashed out.
In some places, they sow peas and beans together broadcast, and plough them in ; the beans serve as a support to the peas,and a greater return is expected; but unless it be for the purpose of cutting them up for green fodder, as soon as the pods are formed, this practioe is not to be recommended. In Flanders, peas, beaus, tares, and barley are sometimes sown thick together, and form an abundant green crop, which is cut as soon as the flower is past, and given to the cows and pigs, which thrive well on this succulent food. The surface of the ground is so completely shaded, that no weeds can spring up ; and as there has been no seed formed, little is taken from the soil. The land is Immediately ploughed up, and sown with another crop, such as potatoes or turnips, which sometimes are off the ground in time to allow wheat to be sown the same year.
The nutritiveness of the pea as food is explained by analysis, which shows that air-dried peas generally contain about one quarter of their weight of flesh-forming constituents ; one half their weight of starch, sugar, fat ; and the rest fibre, water, and ash. The mineral part of the ash of the whole plant contains a very large proportion (40 per cent.) of lime, and 17 or 18 per cent. of the alkalies.