196 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



though inoculation may come sparingly the first year. It 

 enriches soils, as do all legumes, but for enriching quite 

 poor soils it is perhaps better than almost any other. It 

 makes good forage somewhat difficult to cure into hay. 

 The seeds are good food for man or beast. It is not in- 

 sistent on the soil being sweet, as are most legumes, but 

 it will not grow in wet soil. The richer the soil is in min- 

 eral elements the better the growth of peas. It gathers 

 sufficient nitrogen from the air by the aid of its root nod- 

 ules and bacteria, but must have phosphorus and perhaps 

 potassium fed it, the latter being most commonly needed 

 on sandy soils. There are very many varieties of cow- 

 peas; among the most common in use are Whippoorwill 

 and Unknown used in the South, and Black, a good va- 

 riety for the North, though it may not mature seeds there. 

 The Iron pea is immune to the cowpea wilt, so it has 

 value in regions subject to that disease. There is also a 

 wild cowpea growing in Louisiana that perpetuates it- 

 self from year to year and makes much forage. The 

 northern limit of profitable cultivation of the cowpea is 

 probably the same as the limit of the larger dent va- 

 rieties of corn, though it can be grown much farther 

 north and will do fairly well. As cowpeas love sun and 

 warm soil, it is not well to plant them until the earth is 

 warm, say 10 days or two weeks after the usual corn- 

 planting time. The lightest frost is fatal to the cowpea. 



Method of Seeding Cowpeas. To secure a good crop 

 of peas one should plow and prepare the land well. The 

 seed is better sown in drills 30" or more apart, and culti- 

 vated once or twice. Two or three pecks of seed will 

 sow an acre in drills. A larger amount of seed is com- 



