THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



and of butter fat was reduced, while no loss occurred when 

 cowpea vine silage replaced its chemical equivalent in bran. 1 



306. Distribution. While native of southern Asia and central 

 Africa, cowpeas have come to be cultivated in nearly all the 

 warmer regions. The United States may be divided in a very 

 general way into three more or less overlapping regions with 

 regard to the cultivation of legumes. In the North Atlantic 

 and the North Central states, the clovers, red, mammoth, and 

 alsike, constitute the principal forage crops with the kidney 

 beans and the common field and garden peas the principal 

 legumes for seed. In the states west of the Missouri River, 

 alfalfa is the almost universal legume for forage, while the 

 lima beans are grown somewhat on the Pacific coast for their 

 seed. In the South Atlantic and the South Central states, the 

 cowpea is as a forage crop what red clover and alfalfa are 

 in the other sections; while its seeds largely take the place 

 of the field and garden peas, the kidney and lima beans 

 grown elsewhere. 



In some sections, especially in the South Atlantic states, 

 crimson clover becomes an economic factor, while the peanut 

 occupies an important and increasing place in the Southern 

 states north of the cotton belt. Economy of production has in 

 some cases given crimson clover preference to cowpeas. It 

 is estimated that in the cotton belt the acreage of cowpeas is 

 greater than all other legumes combined. 



307. Adaptation. One reason, apparently, for the place 

 which cowpeas are coming to occupy throughout the southern 

 states is their ability to grow reasonably well upon a great 

 variety of soils, assuming a sufficient degree of temperature 

 and not too great moisture. They require a warm, fairly dry 

 soil. Experience has shown that they may be grown success- 

 fully on land too poor for successful crops of cotton or maize, 



i Delaware Sta. Bui. No. 46 (1903), p. 4. 



