Circular No. 5.— (Revised edition.) 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 



COWPEAS. 



{Vigna catjang.) 



(Reprinted from the Yearbook of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1896.) 



ORIGIN AND GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The cowpea is to the South what alfalfa is to the West and red 

 clover to the North — a forage plant perfectly adapted to the needs of 

 the region where it grows. The cultivation of this crop in America 

 dates back to the early part of the eighteenth century. A South 

 Carolina planter received a quantity of seed from a foreign source, 

 which, according to certain authorities, was an English acclimatiza- 

 tion society or the captain of a trading vessel from far off India or 

 China. From this small and obscure beginning cowpeas spread 

 throughout the South, and their cultivation has been essayed .as far 

 north as Connecticut, New York, and South Dakota, and westward 

 to California. 



Cowpeas grow wild in far eastern tropical lands, including India, 

 China, Siam, the Malay Archipelago, and portions of Central Africa, 

 and have become an escape from cultivation in the southern United 

 States and tropical America. From the South the plant has been 

 carried in recent years to South Africa and Australia, so that it is 

 now grown as a forage plant or for human food throughout all the 

 warmer quarters of the globe. Cowpeas are in their relationship and 

 habit of growth really beans, and not, as the name would indicate, 

 peas. They belong to the genus Vigna, the members of which are 

 largely represented in South Africa, and are closely related to the 

 lablab, lima, and haricot beans of our gardens, as well as to numer- 

 ous cultivated or half- wild garden sorts common in tropical Asia and 

 America, but little known to us. 



VARIETIES. 



There are a very large number of named forms or varieties of this 

 forage plant. New forms are constantly arising, due to variations 

 in habit of growth, color of leaf, stem, and pod, and the shape and 



