No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 281 



clover and alfalfa. The oft-repeated talk about clover sickuess 

 is usually the neglect of the conditions that are necessary to make 

 clover a success. I once took charge of a field that was reputed 

 clover sick. It was a fertile limestone soil, and tests showed that 

 it was acid. I gave it a liberal dressing of lime and got as fine a 

 gi'owth of clover as I ever saw. Therefore, while I have for the 

 last forty years been an earnest advocate of the cow pea I have 

 never lost sight of the fact that with the conditions in the north 

 clover is the most natural and best recuperative crop. But even 

 in the Middle states there are extensive areas of thin, sandy soil, 

 where clover is always a scanty growth till the soil is improved to 

 a condition to become favorable to it. On such soils the cow pea 

 is a boon. It will make a fair growth on the poorest of soils, but 

 if supplied on these soils with a liberal allowance of phosphoric 

 acid and potash it will make a luxuriant growth and furnish the 

 means for getting the soil into condition for the growing of clover. 

 On the sandy soils of Middle and Southern New Jersey the pea 

 flourishes almost as well as it does in its southern home, and gives 

 the farmers and gardeners there means to improve their soil, 

 which they cannot so well nor so easily or quickly get through 

 clover. On the fertile soils of Southeastern Pennsylvania the pea 

 makes an enormous grow^th, and is more difficult to cure into hay. 

 But when cut with corn into the silo it will make of the silage a 

 fairly balanced ration and a most valuable food for dairy cows, and 

 can be made, as experiment has shown, to take the place of pur- 

 chased protein for the dairy. When dairymen come to fully realize 

 that they can grow their protein by the use of crops that improve 

 the soil on which they are grown, the days of exorbitant prices for 

 mill feed will be over, and those who are still compelled to buy 

 protein will get it at a more reasonable price because of the grow- 

 ing of it by those having land suited to the purpose. These facts 

 have been demonstrated by carefully conducted feeding experiments 

 at several stations. The farmers in the mountain country of Penn- 

 sylvania may possibly get some pasture from the pea in dry weather, 

 but in clay soil and a region much elevated above the sea with 

 a clay soil it will usually be a waste of effort to attempt its use. 



It may be said that I have said nothing about varieties. These, 

 in the South, are almost innumerable. The plant has broken into 

 a great number of varieties differing in the size and color of the 

 seeds and blossoms and in the habit of the plant. Some make long 

 vines running flat on the ground, and, hence, difficult to use as 

 bay. Others are of the habit of the ordinary bush bean and make 

 a smaller amount of forage, though generally a heavy crop of seed. 

 Some ripen in 60 days from planting, others in 70 days and others 

 run nearly to 100 days in maturing. The original species has been 

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