370 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



November -l'1, 1914. 



FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES. 



PEAS AND BEANS. 



The (juestion of increased fo<jd supply is one of impor- 

 tance to the whole Empire at the present time, and not least 

 to the West Indies. The Commissioner of Agriculture, in 

 his address to the planters of _Montserrat, reported in the 

 Agricullurid NeiiM of October 24, 1914, brought this point 

 to their notice. One of the important food crops which has 

 received but little attention in the We.st Indies hitherto, as 

 Dr. Watts pointed out, is that of peas and beans. And yet 

 this crop is well worth trial, and this for several reasons. 

 Take, for instance, the 'cowpea' ( Vii/na uiiffiu'cu'ata), as it 

 is called in the United States, and its congener, known in the 

 West Indies as "lilack-eye pea" ( Vi(/iia catjantj). These are 

 already gniwn in these islaucls, but only as an article of diet 

 for liical eonsumjition, or as green dressings for the fields. 

 There does not, however, seem to be any reason to prevent 

 the cultivation of them on a larger scale for e.xport. If the 

 cowpea, which matures \ery quickly, were grown widely as 

 a catch crop, the land would be enriched, owing to the well- 

 known beneficial results of a leguminous crop. According 

 to reports lately to hand of the market prices in England 

 for such beans, there would seem to be a sufficient margin 

 of profit accruing, if the quantity grown were worth while 

 shipping and placing on the market. Some kind of 

 mechanical sheller would be necessary for dealing with beans 

 or peas in large quantities. Suitable machines are obtainable: 

 they are not very e.xpensive, or beyond the reach of an associa- 

 tion of growers, who might agree to experiment in this direction. 

 In fact such machines are already in use in the West Indies. 

 Again care would have to be taken in the drying of the 

 beans, and in the protection of them from insect pests. But 

 here the e.xperience of growers in other countries would direct 

 West Indian growers as to the best methods, and the 

 Departments of Agriculture may be relied upon to give their 

 help. 



It may here be mentioned that in the Bulletin of 

 the Imperial Institute, No. 3, 1914, it is .stated that a sample 

 of cowpeas from Hong Kong was valued in England, 

 where there was a small market for them, at £8 per ton 

 in 1911. 



.\n article in the same publication d?als with an eti'ort 

 being made by the Department of Agriculture in Burma to 

 improve the quality of the beans grown there. Amongst 

 them is Fliaseolux lunatuf, a bean also grown in the West 

 Indies, most commonlj' under the name of 'white bean'. 

 A superior variety from iladagascar — worth £24 per ton in 

 "England, while the local variety was only valued at £6 per 

 ton — w'as selected for trial, and 2 tons of seed have been 

 distributed for e.xperi mental cultivation in the Province by 

 the Department. Apart from the possible value of beans as 

 an exqjort, they are very largely used in Burma, as in fact they 

 are throughout the East, as a very nutritious form of diet. 



The great difference in the hiarket value between the 

 local variety and the one chosen for introduction is indicative 

 of the good results obtainable liy wise selection. This bean 

 may well repay further experimentation with as a crop in the 

 AVest Indies. It is practically unattacked by insects, owing 

 to the hydrocyanic principle contained in its foliage. 



In Bulletin No. 102, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 of the United States I)c[)artment of iVgrieulture, there is an 

 interesting article on the history of the cowpea, and its 

 introduction into America, by W. F. Wight. The writer 

 proves that this species ( Vipna um/uiculata) and its near 

 relation, the black -eye \tti;x {Vigna catjang), were originally 



natives of Persia anil the neighbouring region, and that they 

 apparently reached the southern countries of Europe on the bor- 

 ders of the Mediterraite^in somewhere about the begirming •>t 

 Christian era, l)ut were not culti\ated in central Europe till 

 about the sixteenth century. From the evidence collected by 

 Wight, it would seem that from Europe the cowpea was intro- 

 duced into .lamaica somewhere between 1672 and 1687. Thence 

 it appears to have been taken to one or more of the southern 

 colonies of America between the latter date and 1737, 

 and its cultivation seems to have become fairly comnnjn 

 as far north as Virginia by 1795. It is therefore 

 noticeable that the parent stock of the man}' varieties 

 of cowpea now cultivated in the United States was 

 derived from the West Indies, w-here, as was stated 

 at the beginning of this article, they are still commonly 

 grown, but in small quantity. Should the cultivation of beans 

 be attempted in these islands on a more extensive scale, it 

 might be well to consider whether plants raised from locally 

 grown seed would not be more productive, and moi-e 

 immune to insect attack, than those raised from seed imported 

 from the United States. The locally grown varieties would 

 have the advantage of a couple of centuries of acclimatization, 

 and may usefully serve as the starting point for West Indian 

 work in selection. In this connexion it may be noted that 

 during a series of experiments made with the cowpea in the 

 Experiment Station in Antigua from 1907 to 1912, chiefly 

 with a view to ascertain its value as a crop for green manure, 

 it was found to be very susceptible ti3 attacks of insect pests, 

 which largely minimized its value in that respect. On the 

 other hand, the local varieties grown by small cultivators do 

 not seem, as far as has been noticed, to be specially troubled 

 in that way. 



The nomenclature attached to the cowpea and the black- 

 eye needs a good deal of straightening out. The first is 

 known throughout the United States nowadays as cowpea, 

 with various varietal sub-names. The writer aliove (juoted 

 says that practiciilly all the \'arieties belong to the species 

 Vigna unguirulatn, although Vigna catjaii;/ is not unknown. 

 A striking ditt'erence in the two species is that in the former, 

 to which the name cowpea should be restricted, the pods, 

 long before they reach maturity, hang, apex down, on the 

 plant: they are also without marked constrictions: whereas, 

 in the latter, to which the name black-eye might be confined 

 the pods continue to grow almost erect, the apex jiointing 

 upwards from the })lant, and they are noticeably constricted 

 between the seeds, even at an early stage of growth. 



In the West Indies the difficulty in regard to name 

 is accentuated by the fact that the same pea is known in 

 ditt'erent islands by ditierent names. The name cowpea was 

 practically unknown, or certainly not in general use, until 

 the importation in more recent years of seed from the United 

 States. Even now niany persons in the West Indies will 

 probably be surprised to learn that the cowpea is the same 

 thing as what they have long known as 'black-eye pea', 

 increase pea', or 'rounceval' — corrupted even to 'round-so-full. 



This last name, 'rounceval', is comninidy used in .lamaica 

 for the cowpea, and it is interesting to note that it has 

 survived apj)arently from its first introduction there; for 

 Sloane, in his jV^atutrtl History ot Jamiica, describes, in the 

 year 1687, what is evidently the cowpea, as similar to the 

 English 'rounceval' pea. In an old herbal ot a few years 

 later, 'rounceval' is mentioned as a variety of pea grown in 

 England then. The ilerivatiou is from the name of the 

 ipiasi-legendary glorious battle of Charlemagne and his 



