CHAP. III.

Of the Culture of Leguminous Field-Plants.

4737. The seed of the cultivated legumes are considered to be the most nutritive of vegetable substances grown in temperate climates. They contain a large proportion of matter analogous to animal substances, having when dry the appearance of glue, and equally nourishing as gluten. To the healthy workman this substance supplies the place of animal food; and Von Thaer states, that in Germany neither sailors nor land laborers are content, unless they receive a meal of legumes at least twice a week. The straw or haulm, he says, cut before it is dead ripe is more nourishing than that of any of the cereal grasses. But leguminous plants are not only more than all others nourishing to man and animals, but even to vegetables they may be said to supply food; since they are not only known to be less exhausting to the soil than most other plants, but some of them, and more especially the lupin, have been ploughed in green as manure from the earliest times. Many scientific agriculturists consider a luxuriant crop of pease or tares as nourishing the soil by stagnating carbonic acid gas on its surface; which corresponds with the universal opinion of their being equal to a fallow, and with the value set on them in rotation, as already explained (4563). The legumes cultivated in British farming are the pea, bean, tare, and vetch, to which might be added the lentil, kidneybean, and chick pea.

4738. The nutritive products of these plants is thus given by Sir H. Davy, Einhoff, and Thaer:

SECT. I. The Pea.-Pisum sativum, L. Diadel. Decan. L. and Leguminosea, J. Les Pois, Fr.; Erbse, Ger. and Piscello, Ital. (fig. 563.)

4739. The pea is the most esteemed legume in field cultivation both for its seed and haulm. It is supposed to be a native of the south of Europe, and was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, and in this country from time immemorial, though its culture appears to have diminished since the more general introduction of herbage plants and roots; and excepting near large towns for gathering green, and in a few places for boiling the pea, has given way to the bean or to a mixture of pease and beans. There are various inducements, however, to the cultivation of pease in dry warm soils near large towns. When the crop is good and gathered green, few pay better: the payment is always in cash, and comes into the pocket of the farmer in time to meet the exigencies of the bay, and sometimes even of the corn harvest. The ground after the pease have been removed is readily prepared for turnips, which also pay well as a retail crop near towns; and the haulm is good fodder.

4740. The varieties of the pea are numerous; but they

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may be divided into two classes; those grown for the ripened seed, and those grown for gathering in a green state. The culture of the latter is chiefly near large towns, and may be considered as in part belonging to gardening rather than agriculture.

4741. The grey varieties are, the early grey, the late grey, and the purple grey; to which some add the Marlborough grey, and horn grey.

4742. The white varieties grown in fields are the pearl, early charlton, golden hotspur, the common white or Suffolk, and other Suffolk varieties.

4743. New varieties of the pea are readily procured by selection or impregnation, of which a striking example given by Knight has been already referred to. (1599.)

4744. In the choice of sorts, where it is desired to grow grey pease for the sake of the seeds or corn, the early variety is to be preferred in late situations, and the late variety in

early ones; but when it is intended to grow them chiefly for covering the ground and for the haulm, then the late varieties claim the preference, and especially the purple grey. Of white pease, to be grown for gathering green, the Charlton is the earliest, and the pearl or common Suffolk the most prolific. When white pease are grown for boilers, that is for splitting, the pearl and Suffolk are also the best sorts. It is supposed by some to be of considerable importance in the economy of a farm, when the nature of the soil is suitable, to have recourse to the early sorts; as by such means the crops may in many cases be cut and secured while there is leisure, before the commencement of the wheat harvest. And that where the nature of the soil is dry and warm, and the pea crop of a sufficiently forward kind, it may be easy to obtain a crop of turnips from the same land in the same year, as has been suggested above. But in this view it is the best practice to put the crops in in the row method, and keep them perfectly clean by means of attentive hand and horse hoeing; as in that way the land will be in such a state of preparation for the turnips, as only to require a slight ploughing, which may be done as fast as the pea crop is removed, and the turnip seed drilled in as quickly as possible upon the newly turned up earth. In some particular districts a third crop is even put into the same land, the turnips being sold off in the autumn and replaced by coleworts, for the purpose of greens in the following spring. This, according to Middleton, is the practice in some places in Middlesex. But it is obviously a method of cultivation that can only be attempted on the warm and fertile kinds of turnip soil, and where the pea crops are early; on the cold heavy and wet descriptions of land, it is obviously impracticable, and wholly improper.

4745. The soil best suited for pease is a dry calcareous sand; it should be in good tilth, not too rich nor dunged along with the crop. In Norfolk and Suffolk pease are often sown on clover leys after one furrow, or after corn crops on two furrows, one given in autumn, and the other early in spring.

4746. The climate required by the pea is dry and not over warm, for which reason, as the seasons in this country are very often moist and sometimes exceedingly dry and hot in June and July, the pea is one of the most uncertain of field crops.

4747. The season of sowing must differ considerably according to the intentions of the cultivator. When they are grown for podding early for sale green, they should be sown at different times, from January to the end of March, beginning with the dryest and most reduced sorts of land; and in this intention in some southern counties they are put in in the autumn. For the general crops from February to April, as soon as the lands can be brought into proper order is the proper season; the grey sorts being employed in the early sowings, and the white sorts in the later. Young says, that where these crops cannot be put in in February, they should always be completed in the following month. It is observed by the same writer, in sowing on layers, that the white boiling pea, of many sorts and under various names, is more tender than the greys, and various kinds of hog pease; but he has many times put them into the ground in February, and though very smart frosts followed, they received no injury. He has uniformly found, that the earlier they were sown the better. There is also a particular motive for being as early as possible: that is, to get them off in time for turnips. This is most profitable husbandry, and should never be neglected. If they are sown in this month and a right sort chosen, they will be off the land in June, so that turnips may follow at the common time of sowing that crop.

4748. Steeping the seed in water is sometimes practised in late sowings.

4749. The quantity of seed must be different in different cases and circumstances, and according to the time and manner in which the crop is put into the ground; but in general, it may be from two and a half to three bushels, the early sowings having the largest proportion of seed. In planting every flag, Young says, two bushels and a half is the usual proportion; but when drilled at greater distances, six or seven pecks will answer.

4750. The most common mode of sowing pease is broad-cast; but the advantages of the row culture in the case of a crop so early committed to the soil must be obvious. The best farmers therefore always sow pease in drills either after the plough, the seed being deposited commonly in every second or third furrow, or if the land is in a pulverised state by drawing drills with a machine or by ribbing. In Norfolk and Suffolk pease are generally dibbled on the back of the furrow, sometimes one and sometimes two rows on each; but dibbling in no manner appears to us so well suited for a farmer's purpose as the drill. In Kent, where immense quantities of pease are grown both for gathering green and for selling ripe to the seedsmen, they are generally sown in rows from eighteen inches to three feet asunder, according to the kind, and well cultivated between. Pease laid a foot below the surface will vegetate; but the most approved depth is six inches in light soil, and four inches in clay soil, for which reason they ought to be sown under furrow when the ploughing is delayed till spring. Of all gain, beans excepted, they are the least in danger of being buried.

4751. The after culture given to pease is that of hoeing, either by hand or horse. Where the method of hand-culture prevails, it is the general custom to have recourse to two hoeings; the first when the plants are about two or three inches in height, and again just before the period in which they come into blossom. In this way the vigorous vegetation of the young crop is secured, and a fresh supply of nourishment afforded for the setting of the pods and the filling of the pease. At the last of these operations the rows should be laid down, and the earth well placed up to them, the weeds being previously extirpated by hand labor. It has been stated, that in some parts of Kent, where this sort of crop is much grown, it is the practice, when the distance of the rows is sufficiently great, to prevent the vegetation of weeds, and forward the growth of pea crops, by occasionally horse-hoeing, and the use of the brake-harrow, the mould being laid up to the roots of the plants at the last operation by fixing a piece of wood to the harrow. This should, however, only be laid up on one side, the pease being always placed up to that which is the most fully exposed to the effects of the sun.

4752. In harvesting the ripened pea considerable care is requisite, both on account of the seed and haulm. When pea crops become ripe they wither and turn brown in the haulm or straw, and the pods begin to open. In this state they should be cut as soon as possible, in order that there may be the least loss sustained by their shedding. It is observed that in the late or general crops, after they are reaped or rather cut up by means of a hook, it is the usual practice to put them up into small heaps, termed wads, which are formed by setting small parcels against each other, in order that they may be more perfectly dried both in the seed and stem, and be kept from being injured by the moisture of the ground. But in the early crops, the haulm is hooked up into loose open heaps, which, as soon as they are perfectly dry, are removed from the ground and put into stacks for the purpose of being converted to the food of animals, on which they are said to thrive nearly as well as on hay, When intended for horses, the best method would seem to be that of having them cut into chaff and mixed with their other food. Young says, that forward white pease will be fit to cut early in July; if the crop is very great they must be hooked; but if small, or only middling, mowing will be sufficient. The stalks and leaves of pease being very succulent, they should be taken good care of in wet weather: the tufts, called wads or heaps, should be turned, or they will receive damage. White pease should always be perfectly dry before they are housed, or they will sell but indifferently, as the brightness and plumpness of the grain are considered at market more than with hog-pease. The straw also, if well harvested, is very good fodder for all sorts of cattle and for sheep; but if it receives much wet, or if the heaps are not turned, it can be used only to litter the farmyard with. It is the practice in some districts to remove the haulm as soon as it has been cut up by hooks constructed with sharp edges for the purpose, to every fifth ridge, or even into an adjoining grass fields, in order that it may be the better cured for use as cattle food, and at the same time allow of the land being immediately prepared for the succeeding crop. When wet weather happens whilst the pease lie in wads, it occasions a considerable loss, many of them being shed in the field, and of those that remain a great part will be so considerably injured, as to render the sample of little value. This inability in pease to resist a wet harvest, together with the great uncertainty throughout their growth, and the frequent inadequate return in proportion to the length of haulm, has discouraged many farmers from sowing so large a portion of this pulse as of other grain; though on light Lands which are in tolerable heart, the profit, in a good year, is far from inconsiderable. 4753. In gathering green pease for the market, it is frequently a practice with the large cultivators of early green pea crops in the neighborhood of London, to dispose of them, by the acre, to inferior persons, who procure the podders; but the smaller farmers, for the most part, provide this description of people themselves, who generally apply at the proper season for the purpose. The business of picking or podding the pease is usually performed by the laborers at a fixed price for the sack, of four heaped bushels. The number of this sort of persons is generally in the proportion of about four to the acre, the labor proceeding on the Sundays as well as other days. It is sometimes the custom to pick the crops over twice, after which the rest are suffered to stand till they become ripe for the purpose of seed. This, however, mostly arises from the want of pickers, as it is considered as a loss, from the pease being less profitable in their ripe state than when green. Besides, they are often improper for the purpose of seed, as being the worst part of the crop. It is therefore better to have them clear picked when hands can be procured, After this they are loaded into carts, and sent off at suitable times, according to the distance of the situation, so as to be delivered to the salesmen in the different markets from about three to five o'clock in the morning. In many cases in other parts, the early gatherings are, however, sent to the markets in half-bushel sieves, and are frequently disposed of at the high price of five shillings the sieve; but at the after periods they are usually conveyed in sacks of a narrow form, made for the purpose, which contain about three bushels each, which, in the more early parts of the season, often fetch twelve or fourteen shillings the

sack, but afterwards mostly decline considerably; in some seasons so much as scarcely to repay the expenses. This sort of crop affords the most profit in such pea seasons as are inclined to be cool, as under such circumstances the pease are most retarded in their maturation or ripening, and of course the markets kept from being over abundantly supplied. 4754. The threshing of pease requires less labor than that of any other crop. Where the haulm is wished to be preserved entire it is best done by hand; as the threshingmachine is apt to reduce it to chaff. But where the fodder of pease is to be given immediately to horses on the spot, the breaking it is no disadvantage.

4755. The produce of the pea in ripened seeds is supposed by some to be from three and a half to four quarters the acre; others, however, as Donaldson, imagine the average of any two crops together not more than about twelve bushels; and that on the whole, if the value of the produce be merely attended to, it may be considered as a less profitable crop than most others. But as a means of ameliorating and improving the soil at the same time, it is esteemed as of great value.

4756. With respect to the produce in green pease in the husk, the average of the early crops in Middlesex is supposed to be from about twenty-five to thirty sacks the acre, which, selling at from eight to eighteen shillings the sack, afford about eighteen pounds the acre. The author of The Synopsis of Husbandry, however, states the produce about Dartford, in the county of Kent, at about forty sacks the acre, though, he says, fifty have sometimes been gathered from that space of land.

4757. The produce of pease in straw is very uncertain, depending so much on the sort and the season: in general it is much more bulky than that of the cereal grasses; but may be compressed into very little room.

4758. The produce of pease in flour is as 3 to 2 of the bulk in grain, and husked and split for soups as 4 to 2. A thousand parts of pea flour afforded Sir H. Davy 574 parts of nutritive or soluble matter, viz. 501 of mucilage or vegetable animal matter, 22 of sugar, 35 of gluten, and 16 of extract or matter rendered insoluble during the operation. 4759. The use of pease for soups, puddings, and other culinary purposes, is well known. In some places porridge, (brose, and bread is made of pease-flour, and reckoned very wholsome and substantial. In Stirlingshire it is customary to give pease or bean biscuits to horses while in the yoke as a refreshment. The portion of pease that is not consumed as human food is mostly appropriated to the purposes of fattening hogs and other sorts of domestic animals; and, in particular instances, supplies the place of beans, as the provender of laboring horses; but, care should be taken, when used in this way, that they be sufficiently dry, as, when given in the green state, they are said to produce the gripes, and other bowel complaints, in those animals. Bannister, after observing that the haulm is a very wholesome food for cattle of every kind, says, there is generally a considerable demand for pease of every denomination in the market, the uses to which they may be applied being so many and so various. The boilers, or yellow pease, always go off briskly; and the hogpease usually sell for 6d. or 1s. per quarter more than beans. For feeding swine the pea is much better adapted than the bean, it having been demonstrated by experience, that hogs fat more kindly when fed with this grain than on beans; and, what is not easy to be accounted for, the flesh of swine which have been fed on pease, it is said, will swell in boiling, and be well tasted; whilst the flesh of the bean-fed hog will shrink in the pot, the fat will boil out, and the meat be less delicate in flavour. It has, therefore, now become a practice with those farmers who are curious in their pork, to feed their hogs on pease and barleymeal, and if they have no pease of their own growth, they rather choose to be at the expense of buying them, than suffer their hogs to eat beans. Nay, so far, says he, do some of them carry their prejudice in this particular, as to reject the grey pease for this use, as bearing too near an affinity to the bean, and therefore reserve their growths of white pease solely for hog fatting.

4760. In boiling split pease, some samples, without reference to variety, fall or moulder down freely into pulp, while others continue to maintain their form. The former are called boilers. This property of boiling depends on the soil; stiff land, or sandy land, that has been limed or marled uniformly, produces pease that will not melt in boiling, no matter what the variety may be.

4761. Pease straw cut green and dried is reckoned as nourishing as hay, and is considered as excellent for sheep.

4762. In the saving of any particular sorts of pease for seed, they should be carefully looked over while in flower, in order to draw out all such plants as are not of the right sort; as there will always be, in every sort, some roguish plants, which, if left to mix, will degenerate the kind. As many rows as may be thought sufficient to furnish the desired quantity of seed should then be marked out, and left till their pods turn brown, and begin to split, when they should immediately be gathered up, with the haulm; and if the farmer has not room to stack them till winter, they may be threshed out as soon as

they are dry, and put up in sacks for use: but particular care should be taken not to let them remain too long abroad after they are ripe; as wet would rot them; and heat, after a shower of rain, make their pods burst in such a manner that the greater part of their seeds would be lost.

4763. The diseases of pease are few, and chiefly the worm in the pod and the fly on the leaves and flower. They are also liable to be mildewed or blighted. None of these evils, however, are very common; and there is no known way of preventing them but by judicious culture.

SECT. II. The Bean. -Vicia Faba, L. Diad. Decan. L. and Leguminoseæ, J. Fève de marais, Fr.; Bohn, Ger.; and Fava, Ital.

man.

4764. The bean is a valuable field plant, as affording food for live stock, and in part for It is said to be a native of Egypt; but, like other long domesticated plants, its origin is very uncertain. It has been cultivated in Europe and Asia time out of mind: beans have been long known in Britain, but it is only of late years that they were extensively cultivated upon general soils, being formerly considered as adapted only to rich and moist clays. At that time they were all sown according to the broad-cast system; in which way, instead of benefiting the ground, they were of incalculable detriment. Weeds got away at the outset, and, in dry seasons, often ruined the crop; whilst in every season, the grass or perennial weeds, which happened to be in the ground, increased in strength and in quantity, the openness of the bean crop at bottom allowing them to thrive without interruption.

4765. The drilling of beans with a small mixture of pease is now become a general practice in every well cultivated district, more particularly in those where soil and climate permit the practice to be successfully executed. In this way not only heavy crops are raised, but, what is of great importance, the ground is kept constantly in good order, provided suitable attention is bestowed upon the cleaning process. This is generally carried on by horse-hoeing the crop at different times, so long as the hoe can be used without doing damage; and in this way, an able auxiliary is brought forward to the assistance of summer fallow, whereby less stress need be laid upon that radical process than otherwise would be indispensably necessary. (Brown.)

4766. The varieties of the bean may be included under two general heads, the white or garden beans, and the grey or field beans. Of the white beans sown in the fields, the Mazagan and long-pod are almost the only sorts. Of the grey beans, that known as the horse-bean, the small or ticks, and the prolific or Heligoland, are the chief sorts. New varieties are procured in the same manner as in other plants.

4767. In the choice of sorts, tick beans are supposed by some farmers to be more productive than horse-beans; but the latter grow higher in the stem, and produce a more stagnated state of the air, or smother the land more, consequently are the most suitable for the stronger sorts of soil; and Young remarks, that "the common little horsebean has the advantage of all others in being more generally marketable; for, in certain situations, it is not always easy to dispose of ticks, Windsors, long-pods, and various other large sorts. They also grow higher, shade the ground in summer more from the sun, and yield a larger quantity of straw, which makes excellent manure. But some of the other sorts are generally supposed to yield larger products. In purchasing beans for seed, care should be taken to choose such as are hard and bright, without being shrivelled in their appearance."

4768. The best soils for beans are clays and strong loams: on such soils they generally succeed wheat or oats, but sometimes also clover leys. Turnip soils or sands are by no means proper for them.

4769. In the preparation of the soil, much depends on the nature of the land and the state of the weather; for as beans must be sown early in the spring, it is sometimes impossible to give it all the labor which a careful farmer would wish to bestow. It must also be regulated, in some measure, by the manner of sowing. In all cases it ought to be ploughed with a deep furrow after harvest, or early in winter: and as two ploughings in spring are highly advantageous, the winter furrow may be given in the direction of the former ridges, in which way the land is sooner dry in spring than if it had been ploughed across. The second ploughing is to be given across the ridges, as early in spring as the ground is sufficiently dry; and the third furrow either forms the drills, or receives the seed. (Supp. E. Brit. art. Agr.)

4770. Brown, one of the best bean growers in Britain, gives the following directions. The furrow ought to be given early in winter, and as deep as possible, that the earth may be sufficiently loosened, and room afforded for the roots of the plant to search for the requisite nourishment. This first furrow is usually given across the field, which is the best method when only one spring furrow is intended; but as it is now ascertained, that two spring furrows are highly advantageous, perhaps the one in winter ought to be given in length, which lays the ground in a better situation for resisting the rains, and renders