10 



There are a great many acres of farming land in the South in need 

 of renovation. The red upland and j^ellow-clay soils were undoubtedly 

 less fertile originally than the alluvial and black prairie soils, and the 

 methods of cultivation which formerly prevailed have still further 

 diminished their productiveness. In the days when every plantation 

 numbered its acres hj the thousand and labor was cheap, the planter 

 could afford to clear off the native forest growth and bring fresh fields 

 into cultivation whenever the yields of cotton and tobacco fell below 

 what was considered a profitable figure. The old field, stripped in a 

 few years of its accumulated store of humus, was abandoned and 

 allowed to grow up to weeds and underbrush. The forest again spread 

 across it, and gradually, in the slow course of half a lifetime, the nat- 

 ural enrichment of its surface soil by the growth of the woodland 

 grasses made it ready for another robbery. 



But with the breaking up of the large estates and the abrupt change 

 in the labor conditions this method of farming became no longer profit- 

 able or even possible. A planter with fewer acres could no longer 

 afford to await nature's slow process of rejuvenating the soil. A new 

 system of farming was necessary. The land must not be allowed to 

 "go back." It must be kept up to the highest state of productiveness 

 by a rotation of crops, a judicious use of commercial fertilizers, the 

 growth of nitrogen-fixing leguminous crops, and good and thorough 

 cultivation. To maintain the fertility of any soil the amount of humus 

 or decaying organic matter in it must be kept up. Take two soils of 

 as nearly as possible the same physical and geological formation, but 

 the one rich in humus and the other lacking it, and fertilize them with 

 equal quantities of commercial manures ; the one which has the most 

 organic matter in its composition will yield the largest crop. The 

 soil on that field will stand drought better, will wash less under tor- 

 rential rains, and be more friable and of better tilth. The average 

 soils of the South need more humus. It can be best supplied by 

 sowing more grass, more permanent pasture lands, more leguminous 

 crops. In a word, plant cowpeas. 



SUMMARY. 



The chief functions of this crop, then, are to furnish large amounts 

 of nitrogen abstracted from the air and fixed in the roots and stubble 

 in a conveniently available form for the use of succeeding crops ; 

 second, to produce a large yield of vines and peas rich in digestible 

 protein, which, either as hay or for soiling purposes, will take the 

 place of concentrated nitrogenous foods ; and, third, to supply humus, 

 which acts directly and indirectly to produce fertility by breaking 

 down and rendering available the basic minerals of the soil. The 

 fertilizing value of the nitrogen in the vines is entirely dissipated or 



