THE BEST LEGUMINOUS PLANTS 173 



what was formerly considered its limit for profit. Several peas are now to 

 be had which will ripen seed in 60 days from the sowing, and will, in the 

 South, make two crops in one season on the same land ; while there is hardly 

 a section of the country where 60 days of warm weather cannot be had. These 

 early sorts are not as heavy vine makers as the later ones, and hence will not 

 make as. heavy a crop of forage, but they will make effective collectors of the 

 free nitrogen of the air, and can easily be made in most sections to take for 

 a time the place of clover on a wheat stubble where it has failed. As a food 

 plant the greatest value of the pea will be to the dairyman, in saving for him 

 the purchase of wheat bran, while at the same time aiding him in enriching 

 his soil. Experiments made at the Delaware Station showed that cow pea 

 hay would easily take the place of bran in a rotation for milk. It was found 

 that when cows were taken off of a rotation in which wheat bran was a con- 

 stituent, and the same amount of protein was supplied to them in cow pea 

 hay they did not shrink in milk or butter production, but when they were 

 taken off from the peas and returned to the bran they at once decreased in 

 milk flow. The importance of the fact thus demonstrated can hardly be over 

 estimated, for even as far north as the southern part of Vermont we have 

 the same report from dairymen, who say that they find they can no longer 

 afford to do without the cow pea. The substitution of bran, which calls for 

 a cash outlay on the part of the dairyman, by a crop that helps him increase 

 the productiveness of his acres while furnishing him the food that he needs, 

 will give an increased profit to the dairy farmer that is hard to estimate. 



To those in the North who are unacquainted with the Southern cow pea, 

 we have to say that the plant is not a true pea, as they have long been accus- 

 tomed to class peas. The true pea is a very hardy plant and well suited to 

 Northern conditions. The cow pea is more nearly allied, in relationship and 

 appearance of seed and plant, to the bean family, and is a hot weather plant 

 which will not endure the slightest frost. And yet, while the plant is so 

 tender, there are some varieties which are so hardy in the seed that they will 

 remain in the ground in the South over winter and make a volunteer crop 

 the next summer. This fact has led some in the North to suppose that the 

 seed can be planted earlier than is usually advised. But it will generally be 

 found that sowing the seed before the ground is warm will result in a very 

 imperfect stand and a poor crop. We make these statements for the benefit 

 of the large number of people who are continually writing to know whether 

 the Southern pea can be sown along with oats as the Canada pea is sown. 

 A little reflection will show anyone that this cannot be done. Sown at the 

 time oats must be sown in the spring, the greater part of the peas would rot in 

 the ground, and sown at the time peas should be sown, the oats would make 



