5 



cents, making a total of 154.2 ponnds of nitrogen in tbe velvet beans 

 produced on 1 acre of ground, worth $2.3.13. An acre of peanuts con- 

 tained 193 pounds of nitrogen, worth $28.95, while the 108.5 jiounds of 

 nitrogen in an acre of cowpeas was worth 810.20. Similar analyses 

 have been made at the Alabama Experiment Station. Here a yield of 

 8,240 pounds of cured vines and fallen leaves and 1,258 pounds of roots, 

 including about 3 inches of stubble, contained 201 pounds of nitrogen, 

 worth, at 15 cents per pound, $30.15. There was 2.29 per cent nitrogen 

 in the cured vines and 1 per cent in the air-dried roots. 



Experiments were also made at the Alabama Station to determine 

 the value of the velvet bean as a fertilizer, judging from the yield of 

 succeeding crops of oats and sorghum. The increased yield of sorghum 

 fodder was 3,272 pounds per acre over the yield on the plat which had 

 not been cropped the previous year — something over li tons, valued at 

 $12. The yield of oats grown on land where velvet bean stubble had 

 been plowed under was 38.7 bushels, and where velvet bean vines were 

 used 28.0 bushels, while land on which a crop of crab grass and weeds 

 had been plowed under only yielded 7.1 bushels, an average gain of 

 20.5 bushels of grain as a result of growing velvet beans on the land 

 the previous year. The average gain was about the same when cowpeas 

 were grown. 



It is harder to plow under a crop of velvet beans than one of cowpeas, 

 on account of the tangled mass of vines. It is necessary to use a roll- 

 ing cutter, unless the farmer has a disk plow. At the Alabama Experi- 

 ment Station it was found that as good results were obtained from 

 plowing under the stubble as from plowing under a full crop of vines. 

 As a general rule, it may be considered a wasteful practice to turn 

 under the entire crop, because the feeding value of any leguminous 

 crop is always greater than its fertilizing value. A greater profit can 

 be secured in the form of marketable meat i)roducts without materially 

 lessening the influence of the leguminous crop on the succeeding one 

 in rotation. 



USE OF THE EEANS FOR FOOD. 



^"elvet beans have been used to some extent as hunmn food. The 

 general opinion, as expressed by corres})ondents of the Southern agri- 

 cultural papers, is that they are richer and less palatable than cowpeas. 



The seeds are large, dififlcult to thrash, and the pod does not break 

 up readily. Special machines have been constructed for the purpose of 

 cleaning them. For feeding purposes it is a good idea to grind them 

 up, pods and all, thus saving the expense of thrashing. The meal may 

 be used as a concentrated feeding stuff in the same manner as cotton- 

 seed meal. It is said that cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry are all very 

 fond of them, but horses ai)parently do not relish them. 



Jared G. Smith, 



Ai)proved : Assistant Ayrostolofjist. 



James Wilson, 



/Secretary of Agriculture. 



Washington, D. C, May 13, 1899. 



