238 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



cattle, and sheep. (508, 769, 859) When cowpea hay is fed to dairy 

 cows or fattening steers, the allowance of concentrates may be reduced 

 to one-half the amount needed when a carbonaceous roughage, such as 

 corn stover or hay from the grasses, is fed. (616) Because of the suc- 

 culent leaves and thick stems the cowpea is difficult to cure. To prevent 

 loss of the leaves the crop should be cured in cocks built with devices 

 which permit air circulation. (333) 



For hay it is best to grow cowpeas mixed with sorghum, Sudan grass, 

 Johnson grass, millet, or soybeans, all of which plants support the 

 cowpea vines. From such a mixture a larger yield of hay is secured and 

 the hay is more easily cured. 33 Cowpeas are extensively planted with 

 corn or sorghum, when some cowpea seed is often picked by hand and 

 the remainder of the crop, corn and all, pastured, furnishing economical 

 feed for cattle, sheep, or pigs. (770, 872, 990) The combination crop 

 makes palatable, protein-rich silage that should be more extensively used. 

 Thru the greater utilization of cowpeas and other legumes, the live-stock 

 industry of the South may be enormously increased. 



358. Soybean, Glycine hispida. Soybeans are for the most part bushy 

 plants with no tendency to vine, and which, unlike cowpeas, die after 

 the crop of pods has been matured. (256) They thrive in the same 

 climate as corn, maturing sufficiently for hay in northern sections where- 

 ever corn may be grown for silage. Soybeans are better adapted to the 

 northern part of the corn belt than cowpeas, which require a longer 

 growing season and are injured by slight frosts. They are also more 

 drought-resistant than cowpeas and hence well suited to light soils, tho 

 they will not thrive on such poor land as do cowpeas. The fondness of 

 rabbits for the plant is a serious drawback in the plains district. The 

 soybean crop should be cut for hay when the pods are well formed but 

 before the leaves begin to turn yellow, for soon after this the stems 

 become woody and the leaves easily drop off. The crop yields from 



1 to 3 tons per acre of hay nearly equal to cowpea or alfalfa hay in 

 value. (617) Soybeans alone make rank-smelling silage, but 1 ton of 

 soybeans ensiled with 3 to 4 tons of corn or sorghum makes a satisfactory 

 product. For this purpose the soybeans and corn or sorghum may be 

 mixed as ensiled or they may be grown together. Soybeans alone or 

 soybeans and corn are often grown as a pasture crop for hogs. "When 

 designed for pasture the beans should be planted in rows to lessen the 

 loss by tramping, and the hogs should not be turned in until the pods 

 are nearly mature. (989) In the northern states soybeans are used 

 chiefly on sandy land or as a catch crop when clover or other crops fail. 

 Moore and Delwiche of the Wisconsin Station 34 report that soybeans 

 planted in June on jack-pine sand where sugar beets had failed produced 



2 tons of hay per acre. Evvard of the Iowa Station 35 found soybeans or 

 cowpeas surpassed for hog pasture by rape, clover, and alfalfa on soil 

 where the later crops flourished. 



33 Morse, U. S. D. A. Farmers' Buls. 1148, 1153. 



S4 Wis. Bui. 236. "siowa Bui. 136. 



