EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 225 



In Illinois Experiment Station Bulletin No. 43, Hopkins says cow pea hay corres- 

 ponds closely to clover hay. The clover hay has more fat, but as cow pea hay is more 

 digestible and has more protein, its total energy is higher than that of clover hay. 



The cow pea is meeting with favor among horticulturists as a winter cover crop for 

 orchards. For this purpose it is sown in the middle of the summer and allowed to die 

 down and lie on the ground during the winter, when it becomes thoroughly rotted, 

 and can be readily worked into the soil in the spring. 



Mr. B. E. Bickert of Lowell, Mich., says regarding his experience with cow peas : 



"I grew them two years ago, for seed only, on a field where the soil was sandy, 

 heavy, black and quite clayey; the subsoil is clay. They made a large growth. The 

 yield of seed was 25 bushels per acre. I planted them in rows 30 inches apart so I could 

 cultivate. The variety was the Whip-poor-will. 



"This last season I planted them with the corn for the silo, and was not very suc- 

 cessful, but I will try again this year. 



"I have not tried them as pasture, but think they will be good. They seem to be a 

 great root fertilizer. The stock eat the vines and pods and relish them." 



Mr. T. T. Higgins of Dailey, Cass county, sowed Whip-poor-will cow peas on May 22 

 in drills 28 inches apart on sandy clay and gravelly loam. The vines grew from three 

 to five feet in length, almost covering the ground, and ripened before the frost. He 

 pulled and threshed them, feeding the stock the stalk, and although very dry, they ate 

 it with relish. 



Mr. E. P. Diehl of Leesburg, Ind., writes regarding cow peas and soy beans as follows: 



"My four years' experience with cow peas has been in conjunction with soy beans, 

 and find both valuable, the one fitting certain conditions and purposes better than the 

 other, and thus far have grown them principally for their seed, but their pasture and 

 forage value have been thoroughly tested with all kinds of stock with good results. 

 Soy bean plants are relished as soon as they appear above ground; cow peas not so well 

 until they reach a degree of maturity indicated by the ripening of the earliest pods, 

 and this, I believe is the best stage for pasture, hay, soiling, silage and fertilizer. The 

 threshed straw is much relished by stock in winter when straw and corn-fodder is the 

 principal roughage (this is equally true of the soys). On poor soils, cow peas will 

 thrive better than any other legume that has a forage value, and is among the best, if 

 not the best, to resist drought when not planted too thickly, due to its extensive root 

 system and vines carrying a dense foliage. The cow pea bacteria seem to be present in 

 all soils. I have found them in bunches larger than their seeds (peas), and on roots six 

 feet from the stem as large as grains of wheat. This fact, with the quick growth of 

 vines and leaves protecting the ground from beating rains and hot suns, makes the 

 early varieties preeminently catch crop fertilizers for the north, furnishing more humus 

 material and fixing more atmospheric nitrogen in the soil in a shorter time than any 

 other legume, especially in a dry season and on poor land. 



"If cow peas are planted this far north about the first of June, the early varieties 

 will be right to turn hogs on the last half of August and will furnish the right food 

 at this time to finish on new corn, and the ground may be seeded with winter wheat 

 afterwards without any preparation, if a disk drill be used, or rye may be seeded for a 

 green winter cover crop and turned under for spring crop, especially potatoes. For 

 beginners, would advise: Get seed that will mature in your latitude, or farther north, 

 drill 15 pounds per acre in rows 30 to 36 inches apart, and cultivate clean until vines 

 interfere. A few years' trial with cow peas will suggest many ways to utilize them to 

 good advantage on every farm." 



Maj.Geo. K. Newcombe, Traverse City, Mich., writes of his experience on "Orchard 

 Knob" farm, situated on Traverse peninsula, fronting the west arm of Traverse bay. 

 The farm was badly run and lacked in humus and soil fertility, especially on the hill- 

 tops. After trying red clover and field peas with more or less success, he writes: 



"We tried Black Eye cow peas on an acre of old orchard standing on the first bench 

 of land along the bay shore, an old beach. We planted in drills with plenty of seed. 

 Result, a crop too heavy to cover with a plow alone. The next experiment, hardly an 

 experiment, either, was on a larger scale. We used 10 bushels of seed broadcast on 10 

 acres of young orchard. This practice we have continued whenever most needed until 

 last year. The season was so cold and backward that we planted only a few bushels 

 of seed which we had left or gathered from our crops. As our place was then all 

 covered with clover, except one half -acre parcel in potatoes, the result was quite 

 satisfactory. 



"We have never used the cow pea for forage because we wanted it all for renovator. 

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