182 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



legume, like the crimson clover or hairy vetch, will have a good effect in 

 restoring the humus, which most of the peanut lands are very deficient in. 

 With a corn crop following the peanut crop after the soil has had, during the 

 winter, the growth of some kind of green matter, even if only rye, and all 

 the home-made accumulation of manure is used on the corn crop, and cow 

 peas are sown among the corn at last working, a good crop of oats can be 

 harvested the following season, and the stubble planted at once in peas, to 

 be cut for hay to feed the stock. Give the pea stubble a coat of lime and let 

 it lie till time to prepare for the peanut crop. Then, with a liberal dressing 

 of acid phosphate and kainit in equal parts, there is no doubt that heavy 

 crops can be grown. Many of the peanut growers have a most unreasoning 

 prejudice against the cow pea, because, we suppose, of some injudicious use 

 of the pea as green manure in the past. But properly used, there is no 

 reason whatever that the cow pea should not be as useful a help to the peanut 

 grower as to the farmer in other crops. With such a rotation, and plenty of 

 stock to eat the forage grown, there is no doubt that the peanut crop could be 

 restored to its old time production, and be the means, like other legumes, of 

 building up, instead of diminishing, the productiveness of the land. Various 

 formulas have been proposed for fertilizers for the peanut crop, all of which 

 give some form of nitrogen, such as cotton seed meal or dried blood. These 

 may be useful in the present state of peanut culture, but with the rotation 

 proposed there will be no need for the purchase of nitrogen for the crop. In 

 some parts of the peanut section it may be desirable to lengthen the rotation 

 and introduce cotton between the cow peas and the peanuts, and to use the 

 cotton stubble for the peanuts. But whatever the rotation, let it be duly 

 considered and adhered to, and attention given to the improvement of the soil 

 as the best means for the improvement of the crop. 



ALFALFA. 



One of the most valuable of all the legumes, where it succeeds, is alfalfa, 

 or lucerne, as it is sometimes called. Botanically the plant is Medicago 

 Sativa. This plant differs from most of the legumes we have mentioned in 

 the fact that it is a true perennial, and remains productive year after year 

 for an indefinite period. Alfalfa seems to be peculiarly adapted to the arid 

 regions of the West, and it has been suggested that its success there is largely 

 due to the fact that the lime has not been washed out of the soils, as it is 

 found that the plant uses lime freely, and will hardly succeed in the Eastern 

 States without the application of lime. Another reason is the fact that the 

 plant sends its roots down several feet in the soil, and can endure drought 



