262 ' ANKUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



bandied about from one genus to another till it is i-cjilly liard to 

 saA' what the original species is. A few years ago 1 made an effort 

 to find out what the original species is. I got from Australia 

 Dolichos catiang, from Ceylon Yigna catiang, from Japan Vigna 

 sinensis and from China Vigna catiang. Each and every o'ne of 

 these was what we knov>- in the South as the Black Eye pea. I 

 assume, then, that the Black Eye is the original species and that 

 Vigna sinensis is probably the correct name. But it is well knOAvn 

 in the south that there is no pea that varies less than the Black 

 Eye, for it almost invariably comes true to type in plant and seed. 

 It is, therefore, hard to account for the great number of varieties 

 that have appeared unless there has been some crossing mth other 

 spocies, and this has probably been the case. But v/hatever the 

 cause there are certainly widelv variant classes of the cow pea. 

 There is a group of peas, all having seed of a jet-black color, but 

 in speaking of the Black pea it is well to distinguish between 

 bhick peas, some being bush-like in habit and others twining freely. 

 What is grown in Virginia and Noitli Carolina as the Large Black 

 is the best type of this class. It is a free climbing variety and 

 makes a large mass of tangled forage which is hard to harvest. It 

 requires fully eight}' days of hot weather to mature it. One of the 

 most popular varieties in Illinois and other parts of the Central 

 West is the Whippoorwill. This has red speckled seed, is more dwarf 

 in habit than the Blacks, makes a smaller crop of vines, but a large 

 crop of seed. It ripens isi about seventy days from sowing, and 

 hence is adapted to a wider range than the Black. The Clay pea 

 is of about the same character and season as the large Black 

 The most popular variety in the south is th.e one long grown there 

 under the name of the Unknown and also as the Quadroon. This 

 ]yji, of late, becm renamed the ^Vonderful. It is the most erect 

 ]) a grown in its early growth, though it runs freely later and 

 ■ '.akes an immense crop of vines. But the erect habit of the lower 

 growth makes it easier to harvest than the Black or Clay. It is 

 entirely too late to mature in the north, though it has been accli- 

 mated to Northern Delaware, but as a pasture plant it is probably 

 the best that can be used. I mowed it twice the past season, 

 the second growth from the stubble giving a fair crop about the 

 first of November. Recently there have been developed several 

 A^arieties which mature in sixtv davs, none of them heavv vine 

 makers. I have mentioned the Warren Extra Earlv, which is a 

 good type of the class. A few years ago I i*eceived from Arkansas 

 in early July some large Black Eye peas, which the sender said had 

 been grown that season. I planted them on the 13th of July and 

 gathered them ripe on the 13th of September, showing that the 

 claim as a sixty-day pea was well founded. The New Era is an- 



