The Greenville enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1870-1873, 1870-06-29
Glover and Peas Contrasted.

ty, peas of various kinds grow well,
at small expense and with great
profit. In parts of Pennsylvania,
Maryland and in the Valley of
Virginia, clover requires no other
preparation than that made for the
wheat crop, on which it is sowed
in the month of March. This
sowing is often done very care.
lessly, by men walking by guess
across a large field, distributing
the seed with as much regularity
as they can with the thumb and
two fingers. 1t is strange how
so many seed find lodgment suita-
BILE and come up. Often large
fields are well set by sowing one
gallon per acre, managed in
this way. We will say to our
readers in the South, where peas
thrive, that clover is not 30 valua-
ble a crop as the pea. As q fer
t'lizer, the pea is incomparably the
best. The hay which the clover
affords, unless it is well mixed with
some other kinds of grass, is not
the best for stock of any kind
Indeed, clean, fresh, wheat straw
is preferable Cor horses, and corn
fodder, we know by actual expert
ment, is better for cows. On the
other hand, the peas, which may
be gathered without ilnpairing tho
fertilizing effects of the crop, are
more valuable for hogs and sheep
than the hay is for the other stock;
and if this were not q fact, the pea
should be raised to fcrtilize the
soil for, so far us We can learn,
its qualities as an ilnprover do not
change by repetition. But the
clover. after using it many years,
does not improve the soil as it did
at first. The tap.root. in which
consists the cluver's main improv-
ing power, after a few crops,
seems to be unable to find in the
snbsoil the plant food, which was
abundant at first. We published
in this pape. on the oath of juno
last, an article on the black-eyed
pea and the achite eyed black rea
as fertilizer ; and in it we gave
the result of IN experiment made
in this neighborhUod some years
ago. The pea was sowcd after
harvest, on the stubble. and put in
with small plpws. They were
turned under at the usual time for
seeding wheat, and the crop which
followed WAS an increase Gf more
than one hundred per cent. over
the preceding one. The same
conise was pursued after this har.
vest. and it was continued for four
years, with the same remarkable
, results the first crop being fonr
bns els OF wheat per acre, and the
fourth twenty.seven bushels. No
fertilizer of any kind, but the pea,
was used. A case, remarkably
similar, we met with a few days
ago ; which we published below.
These two experiments prove
enough to induce every farmer
where the pea tArives to adopt
the plan with confidence.
We desire to give our agricul
tnral friends the result Of a careful
experiment, made by planter
in Guinnctt county, to encourage
them to make similar Efforts.
Our Guinnett planter had piece
of old exhausted land, twenty
acres of which had been lying in
broom sedge for a number Of
years. This he broke deep with a
turn plow in the summer, and in
the succeeding fall put down in
wheat. The crop, carefully mca,-
ured, was little less than four
bushels to the acre.
AS soon rs the wheat was cut.
he sowed peas, at the rate of two
bushels to the acre. Early in Octo.
Der, the peas were turned under
with a deep furrow, and q few
weeks later, wheat was sown
and carefully narrowed in ppon the
pea sod. The yield from the crop
was nine bushels to the acre, q lit
tic more than double the first
years crop.
The field was again sown in
peas. as soon as the wheat was
harvested, and turned under as
before. in the fall, and wheat SOW n
upon the soil. The yield this year
was seventeen and half bushels.
The fourth year, with the same
treatment, he made twenty seven
bushels, and this Che fifty year,
the crop bids fair to make fort v
b"shel,. Nothing had been applied
TO the land as a fertilizer. exccpt
the pea. and we find that in five
years. with the COW rea alone, The
production Las incr cascd ten. fold
This actual experiment speak,
more for the pea than any argu
ment which we could make.
We trust some Of our planting
tpN I1