increase in weight will thus represent so much clear profit, and the 

 farmer is richer by half a ton or more of prime pork for every acre 

 planted. Chickens and turkeys also eat the ripe peas and do well 

 upon them. Cattle and horses are sometimes pastured on them, but 

 the safer and more economical way of feeding cowpea vines to such 

 stock is to cut or pull and feed partially wilted. There will be less 

 waste and destruction from trampling, and if each animal is given 

 only so much as it can eat clean the greatest economy as well as 

 greatest profit will result. Furthermore, cattle and sheep are liable 

 to bloat if allowed to eat too ravenously of cowpea vines or any other 

 rich and succulent forage, and by using it as a soiling crop the danger 

 may be more readily controlled and the loss prevented. The report has 

 been sent out from some of the Northern experiment stations, where 

 this forage plant is not ordinarily cultivated, that cattle will not eat 

 the green vines except after having been starved to it, and then only 

 sparingly. We have seen Western horses and ponies that would not 

 touch red clover or a grain ration of oats, and have heard of Eastern 

 stock that would not eat alfalfa hay. But these few adverse cases 

 do not prove that red clover, alfalfa, and oats are not good forage. 

 With the cowpea the case is similar. It is very rarely that any South- 

 ern planter reports that this forage is refused by any kind of stock. 



COWPEAS FOR ENSILAGE. 



Reports are very conflicting in regard to the value of this crop for 

 ensilage. There is much positive testimony both for and against, some 

 authorities stating that the quality is excellent and others that the 

 vines contain too much water, the product of the fermentation being 

 a slimy, foul-smelling mass, unfit for food for any kind of animals. 

 From reports on the subject it is to be believed that the attempt to 

 convert cowpea vines into good ensilage can not be made with such 

 uniform success as in the case of red clover. The percentage of water 

 in the tissues is too high, and the mechanical difficulties in the way 

 of running a mass of tangled herbage through the feed cutter are too 

 great. Special machinery would have to be constructed for the pur- 

 pose. Indian corn will probably remain for many years the best all- 

 around forage plant for this purpose. The consensus of opinion among 

 agricultural workers seems to be that ensilage made from any legume, 

 whether it be cowpeas, vetches, soy beans, alfalfa, or the clovers, does 

 not equal in feeding value good hay made from the same. Under 

 certain conditions that arise in the silo the crude protein is converted 

 into indigestible or insoluble nitrogenous compounds. The cowpea 

 or clover ensilage is then valuable only for the carbohydrates that it 

 contains, and either corn or sorghum is far superior to it. 



