The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1858-07-07


MAY your rich soil,
Exubcrant, natures g better blessings pour
0'ereyery land"
THE FILD PEA.
lis Permanenee as Fertilizer, and Preparatory
! Crop for Tobacco.
The cornfield pea has not, as general thing,
succeeded above tide-water as preparation
for the wheat cropj and instances have oc-
CURED, as in our own experience, where the
wheat crop was very seriously curtailed by
a pea fallow. Other cases, also, are known
in which it has failed to reproduce its own
seed, though the vine has been most luxuri-
iant.
Still it may be made to serve valuable
purpose in that region. One such at least,
we think, is its application to the land the
year preceding a tobacco crop. We have not
heretofore recommended this, because some
said il would not show its improvement be-
yond the year it was seeded and others, that
It ought by all means to be fallowed in its
green or succuent state, or IFS value would
be lost.
The following experiment assures US to the
contrary. Last Spring we falowed up and
put in oats all that we could OF particular
field that had been the year before in corn.
But protracted rain made it impossible TO
sow or fallow the whole until it would have
been too late. All the land falIowed was not
got in and a strip in wet white fiat. thus
excluded from oats, was at the proper time
only il was too early--sowed down in peas
so that the strip Of peas grew between oats on
the one hand, and uncultiyated land of the
same quality on the other. This Spring the
whole was ialowed and again sowed in oats.
and now presents this appearance; The strip
on which the peas grew is very fine crop :
the oat stubble shows very good crop; an,l
the land that rested very ordinary crop,
From this experiment, which finds abundant
analogy in other green manure crops, and is
supported by theory. two results may be in.
ferred: lst. That peas need not be falowed
until the year after their wrowth. End. That
their fertilization will certainly last until
that time.
These deductions are all that We need tc
assure US Of the practicability OF pea-ialioS
. to precede tobacco and IL it can be apple,
to that purpose it will be very valuable. The
difficulty with most people now is to Obtain
sufficient putrescent manure for their tobac
CO and great deal of useless labor is en-
countered in hauling stalks and wheatstrav
into pen, treading them and saturating then
with weddings Of cattle, and hauling them ou
q again. In many cases this quantity OF coars'
manure is still further increased by haulin;
: litter from the woods. II takes in that way a
much labor to manure the land as il does Il
cultivate an ordinary crop on the same area
In fact, where the land lies at the barn-door
and is distant from il al its iarthest point onl,
six hundred yards, il will take the teams an,
!, hands II farm longer to haul and deposi:
without spreading. ten wagon loads Of manur
per acre. than to plough and harrow the LAM
: with two or thrcc.horse ploughs. This "
know for we have just tried il. When tha
: is done the manure is not much better 10
A tobacco than the straw would have been an
,e neither answers as well as a condition Of ye
le geiable matter more nearly approaching hu
- mus. Now this may be attained BY sowin,
peas and plowing them down at such time
IN the Fall. Winter, or Spring, as may be con
: senieni. The shade of the growing peas
itself fertiizing. and the vines begin to r.
as soon AZ warm weather commences. A yer
light dressing Of stable or farm.pen manur,
or Of guann, if stable manure be not at hant
will furnish the tobacco with everything els
IL wants.
Peas may not be desirable where all III
land Of farm is sufficiently charged wit
vegetable matter but very few farms preser
this condition. On nearly all are spots
land which il Is very desirable to improve,
many cases too remote from the curtilage
admit ol economical manuring in the usui
way. On such places, peas. on a very ligl
ne cover Of straw, or woods litter, sowed dow
By the middle Of June. will. in decent Sc;
,w son. give growth which good Noyemb'
= OF December ploughing will convert into
fine tobacco tilth and every planter know
on that his land once up to that point, except
,c certain very peculiar soils, il is his own tan
" if il is not thrncefOrth rapidly improved. 4
such places the land may be ploughed az
sowed in peas in less time than il would tai
= 10 manure IL and the manure may be mo-
benefcially applied to other tobacco; or as
tup.dressing 10 grass or clover lands. II
ns possible that in many cases the land tn
~, vn treated with peas would at once produce
7" good tobacco as the lots. especially Il aid,
6y guano, as by all means il should be.
- other cases the planter must look TO the N
~ proycment OF his land as part Of the pro
iron the crop. frequently an incident not
be despised.
Finally, We would say to those who dou
ets the speedy cure Of gals in this way, that !
w w would be glad to show them, lon some spC
~ uf our own, on hills from which all the 81
nj. had become abradcd. the happy effect Of o
ca. application or rotten straw and one sowing
peas. southern Planter
.ek