THE BEST LEGUMINOUS PLANTS 175 



and grass had not the power the legumes have to gather the nitrogen from Ihc 

 air, and thus increase the fertility of the soil, while adding a valuable food 

 crop for the keeping of cattle, which was impossible under the resting method. 



Now, by degrees, the Southern farmers are finding out that the best 

 rest which can be given to their land is to keep it busy, growing crops that 

 will tend, to build up its fertility, while at the same time enabling them to 

 ft '(M! more stock and to raise more and better manure. And this is done, too, 

 by a cleansing crop, instead of the rest crop of weeds and grass, which filled 

 the soil with seed for future brow sweatings. The old time cotton farmers 

 thought that farm rotation was a good thing for the North and the grain 

 growing districts, but that cotton was the one crop which could not be fitted 

 into an improving rotation; and to this day the same impression prevails 

 among many of the tobacco growers of the South. While the fact is, that 

 no crops so easily lend themselves to a regular and systematic rotation, 

 whereby stock may be fed and the farmer made gradually more and more 

 independent of the fertilizer mixer. 



There has been a great deal of inquiry in regard to the quantity of seed 

 of the cow pea that should be sown per acre. The quantity will depend on 

 the fertility of the soil and the purpose for which the crop is to be applied. 

 On strong land, where the crop is intended to be cut and cured into hay, if 

 thin sowing is practiced the stems will grow too large and stout to cure well. 

 Hence, for a hay crop, on strong land, the peas should be sown at the rate of 

 one and a half bushels per acre if sown broadcast. If on thin land, and the 

 crop is intended to be used as a means for soil improvement, they had better 

 be sown in rows and cultivated and fertilized. In this case three pecks will 

 be abundant seeding. On soil of only fair fertility and where the crop is to 

 be used for hay, one bushel sown broadcast will be sufficient. There is a 

 growing tendency among the most thoughtful farmers to plant the crop in 

 rows and cultivate it, as many are satisfied that they can get a better crop 

 either of peas or forage in this way, and one intelligent farmer in Virginia 

 says that after years of experimenting he- gets the best results from one peck 

 per acre, drilled in rows and cultivated like corn. Since the seed is gener- 

 ally high priced it is important that none shall be wasted, and it will be wise 

 for farmers, to experiment on their own soils to test this point. While the 

 cow pea can be used in the renovation of worn soils more easily than red 

 clover, because of the fact that it will thrive on land where clover will not, 

 still its growth can be greatly enhanced and the work it will do for us greatly 

 increased by the judicious application of phosphoric acid and potash, and 

 thus we can get more forage to feed while getting more fertility added to the 

 soil. The experiments we have described at the Tennessee Station show how 



