THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 297 



This is in accordance with the views we have held for some time on 

 this cow pea question. There are sections in Missouri and south central 

 and southern Illinois wherec lover does not do as well as in latitudes 

 farther north, and for two reasons: the winters are open and there is 

 freezing and thawing during most of the winter months and the soil is a 

 heavy clay, which turns into hardpan in the next county, for hardpan, 

 like miik sickness and fever and ague, is usually found in the county 

 adjoining. This stiff, tenacious clay lifts the clover out of the ground, 

 and while it does well during the spring and summer, it does not carry 

 through the winter and hence is not available except for plowing under 

 as a first crop. 



This is not a fatal objection to growing clover, for the fertility alone 

 developed in the first crop is ample payment for the seed, but it is an. 

 objection none the less, but will be less of an objection when farmers 

 come to realize the value of even a first crop of clover as a source of fer- 

 tility. Alfalfa cannot be grown under these conditions and hence the cow 

 pea is the best substitute for clover of which we have any knowledge. 



Careful readers of Wallacees' Farmer must have noticed that in the 

 last two or three years this cow pea is coming north. We planted a 

 small quantity as an experiment this year and while planted late and 

 badly cared for, nevertheless they yielded a fine crop of peas, showing 

 that it can be used with profit in central Iowa. Farmers in northern 

 Iowa, almost up to the Minnesota line, have furnished us from time to 

 time with samples of well matured cow peas, and it may, therefore, be 

 safely stated that the cow pea will flourish in northern Illinois and we 

 have but little doubt in southern Wisconsin. The cow pea adapts itself 

 to climatic conditions even more readily than corn and in time varieties 

 will be developed that will grow wherever corn will grow. 



The cow pea is a hot weather plant and therefore must not be planted 

 until after corn, and as it will not stand frost it must be used either as a 

 grain or a forage crop before the first frost. The cow pea belongs to the 

 same order of plants as the clover; that is, it is a legume, and as such 

 obtains its nitrogen from the atmosphere and fertilizes land exactly in 

 the same way and with the same ingredients as clover; hence, it can be 

 used as a substitute for clover wherever for any reason clover does not 

 rio well. 



As a grain crop it is superior to clover and fully its equal as a forage 

 crop the first year. It is strictly an annual and all the benefit comes in 

 the year it is planted or sown and within ninety days of sowing. It can, 

 therefore, be used not merely as a fertilizer, but as pasture for dairy cows 

 and as a substitute for early corn for hogs. It can also be used in the 

 orchard and this is one of the places where we would suggest a trial. 

 The cow pea will fertilize the orchard so far as nitrogen is concerned and 

 can be sown at the last cultivation, say in June. It can either be har- 

 vested for forage, or for seed, or the hogs can be turned in to gather the 

 crop and leave the haulm to lie as a winter covering. 



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