I. FERTILIZER TESTS OF COWPEAS. 



The cowpea is the most important Southern soil-improving crop. 

 Its value for soil improvement, for hay and for other purposes has 

 long been understood and appreciated by farmers throughout the 

 South. The suitability and adaptability of the different varieties, 

 of which there are a large number, to the different sections of the 

 country, are not well known, and results upon which to base in- 

 telligent ideas of fertilization which will give best results with the 

 crop on different soils are quite limited, and in most cases entirely 

 lacking. Our Test Farms were established in different sections of 

 the State and on different type soils for the purpose of obtaining 

 information of this kind. The following extract from our first 

 report in 1900 on Test Farm work is of interest in this connection : 



"There is justly much doubt in the minds of farmers as to whether or not 

 they are using the fertilizer and the quantity of that fertilizer best suited to 

 give them the most profitable results. There are quite a number of types of 

 soil in the State, each one of which represents a considerable area. These 

 different kinds of soil likely differ in their fertilizer requirements. The vari- 

 ous classes of plants grown on them certainly do. The only thoroughly practi- 

 cal way of determining the proportions of nitrogen (or ammonia), phosphoric 

 acid and potash, that are best suited to the different crops and soils, as well 

 as the most profitable amounts of these valuable fertilizer constituents to use, 

 is to actually grow the crops on the particular soil in question, and apply 

 varying quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash in the materials 

 which supply them. By doing this, and giving the areas with different 

 amounts of fertilizers the same treatment during the growing season, and 

 submitting the yields to the careful test of the balance, nature gives the 

 answer desired. This is the practical as well as the scientific way of dealing 

 with this and like subjects — going direct to the soils and plants, and making 

 kno^;\Ti our wants in such a way as to induce them to give the most intelli- 

 gent answers as to what they need to do the best service for man. 



"To be of value, work of this kind must be carefully done, and this requires 

 skill and experience with soils, plants and fertilizers, and, in addition, costs 

 some money. But the farmer's outlay for fertilizers, as well as his need and 

 desire to use them in the best and most economical way, not only justifies, but 

 calls for the conduct of this kind of woi'k." 



WORK REPORTED. 



On the following pages are recorded the results of five years' 

 fertilizer experiments with cowpeas and six years of tests of our 

 main varieties, on the Iredell Test Farm of this Department, ex- 

 tending through the years 1903-1908, both inclusive. The work is 

 being continued to collect further data along these lines, as well as 

 to obtain information as to the value of the crop in rotation with 

 other crops, for soil improvement and for other purposes. 



Considerable data, of a more or less technical nature, is not pub- 

 lished here, but is reserved for future use. This relates especially 

 to the composition of the different varieties, the relative proportion 

 of the different parts, as peas, stalks, leaves and stubble, and bears 

 especially on the comparative values of the different varieties for 

 soil improvement. 



