358 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



acre. It is believed that the tiles will increase in efficiency from 

 year to year, and that the gains for future years will be greater. 

 This year was a dry year in Barton county, also. On the flatter 

 areas of this gray soil underdrainage will undoubtedly be found 

 profitable. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. By ground limestone you do not mean burnt limestone, do 

 you? 



Prof. Miller: No, finely ground limestone rock. 



Q. What is the proper time for plowing under cowpeas? 



Prof. Miller: We usually plow them under about the time 

 they begin to set pods — maybe a little earlier — but that's the best 

 time to plow them under, everything considered. 



Q. How would it affect the land to let them ripen? 



Prof. Miller : Just the same as if plowed under. We can not 

 very well turn the hogs into these fields and have them feed on the 

 cowpeas, but where they are fed off we get practically the same 

 fertility back on the farm through the manure. 



Q. Can you plow the cowpeas under green? 



Prof. Miller : Yes, but it is usually best to wait until they have 

 nearly matured, unless a crop like wheat is to follow, and one 

 cannot wait. 



Q. What time do you sow your cowpeas, and how much to 

 the acre? 



Prof. Miller: We sow them whenever we can, depending on 

 what they follow. Not many sow them in the corn. Cowpeas 

 should not be sown in this part of the State until about the last 

 of June. Cool weather stunts them. The last of June or the first 

 of July is the best time to sow them. 



Sometimes they are put in corn at the last cultivation. If the 

 season is ordinarily moist during the latter part of the growing 

 season, we will get good growth ; if the season is dry, we will get 

 poor growth. Cowpeas are not always successful in the corn, 

 but ordinarily, if you put them in with a one-horse drill, there is 

 not very much danger. This sometimes happens: If the latter 

 part of a season is dry, the sowing of cowpeas may cut your corn 

 yield at the rate of 5 or 6 bushels ; but the benefit which follows will 

 usually very much more than pay for the loss to your corn. In a 

 good year you will probably never see any difference in the yield 

 of corn. 



