25 



Nutritive Value of Cowpeas and Cowpea Vines. 



The high nutritive value of the seed, the hav, and 

 the green vines of the cowpea plant may be seen from 

 the following figures adapted from Prof. W. A. Henry's 

 book on ^^Feeds and Feeding:'' 



I Lbs. digestible. 



Muscle 

 formers 



Starch, 



etc. 



Fats 



100 lbs. cowpeas (shelled seed) contain*. 



100 lbs. cowpea hay contain 



100 lbs. green cowpea vines contain 



♦Assuming same digestibility as for meal from Canada field peas. 



Cowpea hay contains almost exactly the same amounts 

 and proportions of digestible materials as wheat bran. 

 The seed is more nutritious than wheat bran and far 

 richer in protein, — the so-called ^'muscle formers," — 

 than is corn. In our feeding experiments with pigs it 

 hias proved itself better than corn when constituting 

 only a portion of the grain ration. By feeding farm 

 teams on a liberal allowance of peavine hay the amount 

 of corn necessary can be reduced much below that usu- 

 allv consumed. 



Coirpcas versus velvet beans as forage. — This compar- 

 ison can be made on the basis of (1) palatability and 



nutritive value, (2) cost of growing and harvesting a 



ton of each, (3) productiveness, and (4) hardiness. 



The number of analvses. of velvet bean hav is insuffi- 

 oient to give an accurate detemiination of its exact nu- 

 tritive value, in which, hoAvever, it is probably about 

 equal to peavine hay. In palatability the advantage is 

 decidedly with pearines. 



We have found it praetically impossible to use the 

 mower in cutting velvet beans and when both crops are 

 •cut Avith the scvthe our records show that the velvet 



