Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-02-11
BLUE BELL PEAS.
(From the Agricultural Grange
NeWS.)

10 Wnetner IL Will pfODaDly De SOOu
thing to SOW peas this year 1916).
Not having time to answer SO many
letters one at a time, write the fol-
lowing as a general answer:
The Pea Cycle.
Like all other crops, peas have
their ups and downs. Pure peas GALL
of one Variety rarely sell below $40
per ton. Some years they sell for
$50 per ton. The cycle seems to be
somethign like this:
First-A small crop; some special
demand Qike the present war;, and
prices go soaring, $3.50 to $3.50 per
ton.
Second-Everybody wants to plant
peas. There is little pure seed. Many,
indeed most, farmers plant mixed
seed. Next fall the small amount Of
pure peas will command a good price
| $50 to $50 per TONI.
Third-Then in 1917 there will be
an extra large acreage. No special
demand. War over. Good general
yield. Price goes down. Anything
except fancy stock goes for "hog
feed" Farmers think peas are 'only
hog feed" anyway, and so take no
pains to keep them pure; and in
truth they are "just hog feed"
Fourth-Then, after one, two or
three years depending on outside
circumstances), there comes de-
mand for peas-for good peas.
But good peas are scarce - and
high, 1920 and $3.50 per ton again.
The moral is plain-sow only the
very best seed. and don't get dis
couraged.
This year my peas netted me over
SITS per acre, after allowing for loss
of fertility. This, of course, is not
an average, but still SITS an acre is
good even once in six years.
Kind Of Peas.
On heavy. rich, moist clay soil
there is nothing so good as the Blue
Bell.
On sandy. drier soils a long-vined
pea is better. do not raise peas OF
two colors; SO on my sandy soil I
SOW Blue Imperial.
For hay or ensilage the Kaiser
seems best.
The Bengalia, a pea recently i'm
ported from Bengal, yields fairly we'll,
but not so we'll as the Blue Bell on a
clay soil; sells at much less than the
Blue Bell, and is too small for hog
ging of, as many are lost in the dirt,
while scarcely any Blue Bells come
up after the hogs. A Blue Bell Is
large and q hog will smell one down
an inch or two in the ground. finding
practically all of them. I think less
than q peck to the acre were left out
of a crop of say forty bushels per
acre.
Golden Vine and Amraoti are good
peas for light soils, but yellow peas
average less in price than blue peas,
and as I know Of no yellow peas
adapted to a heavy clay soil. I never
raise any yellow peas.
Weavils.
The pea weavil does not fly In day
light. Neither does 1t fly when the
temperature is below so degrees.
Therefore you will have no weavils
unless your evenings are at least go
degrees warm. Here. they are not,
SO we have no weavils.
Neighborhood Cooperation.
Try to get your neighborhood to
agree on either yellow or blue peas.
It is a tremendous nuisance to get
yellow and blue peas mixed-mere
hog feed" 1t is hard to keep seed
pure when every farmer has a differ
ent color of pea.
In Whatcom county practically
every farmer will tell you that he has
blue Bell' peas, but az a matter OF
fact only three or four have pure
seed-that OF course is why we get
twice as much as others do for their
mixed peas.
Why isn't thoroughbred" pea
worth more than scrub, just as
thoroughbred pup, or colt, or calf, or
pig is worth more than scrub?
sLooks'' vs.. "Pedigree."
One can 20 to a herd OF grade Jer-
seys and Gull out some very nice heif'
ers. But when bred, many OF these
nice looking heifers will drop SCRUB
calves; as stockmen say, they breed
back"
Just so one may take mixed peas
and hand-pick them till they look
like thoroughbred, but when sown
they will yield large per cent OF
scrubs" 1t takes from three to six
years to get a good grade of seed,
although hand-picked every year. But
with good seed, hand-picked every
wear for ten years, good crop is
assured.
Year in year out peas will yield, on
my place, SO per cent more than oats.
have tried contract" peas for
seedsmen, garden peas, and many
kinds of field jeas.
On my land nothing yields so well
as the Blue Bell, and at the Puyallup