Tub Bui-i>ktin. i.'9 



TEST OF DIFFERENT QUANTITIES OF SEED PER ACRE (NEW ERA.) 



•Peas rotted in field as a result of continued rains. 



Varieties. — Six years' tests variety of cowpeas have been made on 

 the Iredell Test Farm. These tests have included thirty-one (31) 

 varieties, embracing the main ones grown in this and adjoining 

 States, as well as many of the less important ones. The results are 

 valuable as showing the varieties which are best suited to the State, 

 and especially to the section where the experiments were carried 

 on, for pea and hay production and for grazing and soil improve- 

 ment. The summary of these several years' work is presented in the 

 table below, which shows the varieties tested, the yield of peas in 

 bushels and of hay in pounds per acre, date of planting, number of 

 days to mature hay and peas, rank according to productiveness for 

 both peas and hay, the number of peas to make a pound, which is a 

 measure of the size of the individual peas ; the color and shape of the 

 peas, and the habit of growth of the several varieties, whether erect, 

 half trailing or trailing. The rank of the several varieties according 

 to productiveness of peas and hay has been arranged in groups, ac- 

 cording to the number of years tested. Those varieties which have 

 been tested four years or more are included in the general averages, 

 and are given rank according to the amount of hay and peas each 

 variety has yielded on an average during the years they have been 

 grown. The other varieties have their averages for the number of 

 years for which they have been grown, and are not given rank in com- 

 parison with the others, which have been grown for longer periods. 

 In comparing varieties it is necessary that they should have been 

 grown the same year and under the same conditions, as different 

 seasons affect the yield very much, especially when planted late and 

 follow grain, as was the case with most of our work. 



