9 



to prepare an excellent .seed bed for the wheat that was to immediately 

 follow. Inasmuch as wheat was to follow wheat, the greater part of 

 the labor and expense of this catch crop of peas was but the prepara- 

 tion of the land for the succeeding- crop of wheat, leaving a very 

 small expense account chargeable to the crop of peas. Of course, the 

 harvesting and housing of the crop in this manner required favorable 

 weather, but not more so than would have been required to put away 

 successfully the crop in the ordinary way. In such work as this the 

 planter is more or less dependent on the weather for his success, this 

 being one of the incidents of his calling. 



If it were possible again to grow such tine crops of clover on the 

 lands in Tennessee, and elsewhere in the South, as we secured years ago, 



Fig. 2.—X tiekl of corn and whip-poor-will cowpeas. 



the questions discussed and experiences given in this paper would be 

 of less importance than they are now. But as this can not be done, 

 and as the cowpea has come to be regarded as the substitute for 

 clover, for the purpose of fertilizing and renovating the soil, and for 

 furnishing food for live stock, the planters and stock growers in these 

 States are compelled, by self-interest, to study the question in all of 

 its bearinp-s, in order to ascertain the best manner of cultivating and 

 saving this crop. And the question is made more important by the 

 fact that this substitute is so varied in its useful purposes and capable 

 of serving the planter in so many different kinds of combinations with 

 his other farm crops. The writer's advocacy of the cowpea for the 

 needs of the South and his reasons for growing and using it in so 

 17716 2 



