174 CEOP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



a poor showing. The varieties of the cow pea cultivated in the South are 

 almost innumerable. Those which make a heavy growth of vine are, as a 

 rule, too late for cultivation north of Central Virginia. But one of the best 

 forage makers, the black seeded pea, can be grown easily as far north as Cen- 

 tral New Jersey, and the Whippoorwill or Speckled pea, which makes a fail- 

 growth of vine, and is a large cropper of peas, has succeeded well in Southern 

 New England, and the Warren Extra Early has ripened seed up on the shores 

 of the Great Lakes, and in Iowa. There are indications that all the varieties 

 gradually acclimatize themselves if taken gradually northward. Some years 

 ago we sent several varieties of our peas to Cornell University Experiment 

 Station, and it was found that the Black and the Clay pea ripened there from 

 North Carolina seed, while the same varieties from seed raised in Louisiana, 

 failed to ripen. This shows the importance of getting seed grown as far 

 North as possible if the crop is to be grown in a northen latitude. 



A few years ago we had a letter from a gentleman in Iowa, who said that 

 he moved there from Southern Missouri, and having been accustomed to the 

 Black Eye pea as a table vegetable he thought he would try them there. Get- 

 ting a few seeds from Missouri, he planted a row in the warmest part of his 

 garden. They grew well but only one plant ripened any, and this made but 

 three pods. He saved these and planted them the next season in his garden 

 and every plant ripened a full crop. This gave him about a peck of seed, 

 and he planted two rows alongside his corn field. That Summer drought 

 and hot winds almost ruined the corn, while the rows of peas grew with the 

 utmost luxuriance. One of his neighbors, a cattle man, came over to condole 

 on the great damage to the corn crop, and was shown the peas. He begged 

 the owner to save every pea, saying that they would settle the stock business 

 for Iowa and furnish a safeguard against drought and hot winds. 



A correspondent in Central Illinois wrote that the frost caught his peas 

 before he had a chance to cut them, but a bunch of cattle turned on the dead 

 peas got rolling fat before snow came, and he was satisfied that they would 

 be of inestimable value, even if none were ever cut. And yet while this plant 

 has been grown in a desultory way in the South for generations, the cotton 

 farmers, have been slow in waking up to the value of the plant they have at 

 hand. In many sections the farmers, recognizing the damage that was being 

 done in the annual culture of cotton on the same land, thought to help 

 matters by what they called "resting" the land. That is, they allowed the 

 land to lie idle one year and grow up in weeds and grass, to be plowed under 

 for the next year's cotton crop. Of course, even this amount of organic 

 matter returned to the land, and the summer shading of the soil, was a great 

 help. But the natural growth was merely organic matter, and the weeds 



