OTHER LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 1 29 



its power to grow under adverse conditions; 3, its 

 great value as a pasture and a fodder plant for live 

 stock ; 4, the magnificent service which it renders to 

 the soil when plowed under as a green manure. 

 There are but few places in the entire south where 

 the land is tillable in which this plant may not be 

 grown with more or less success. The proper use 

 of the cowpea and of its complement, the soy bean, 

 to the greatest extent possible, would revolutionize 

 the agriculture of large areas in the south, where the 

 soil is sandy and lacking in fertility. 



The cowpea furnishes excellent pasture for cat- 

 tle, sheep and swine, but when pastured by cattle 

 the waste of vines is greater than when fed as soiling 

 food. It also furnishes good hay, when properly 

 cured for horses, cattle and sheep. But it is not as 

 easily handled as the common field pea in the north, 

 nor is it so easily cured. The grain is also excellent 

 for milk production and for growing swine. Its 

 use for these purposes in the form of meal has not 

 become general, owing first, to the considerable 

 labor involved in handling the crop, because of the 

 long and intertwining nature of the growth in many 

 of the varieties grown, and, second, because of 

 the incomplete machinery for harvesting the crop 

 in the best manner possible. There would seem 

 to be no valid reason why the pea harvester 

 should not be generally used in harvesting the 

 cowpea. 



It is scarcely possible to give figures that would 



represent the average yields of the crop per acre in 



the green form, owing to the many varieties that are 



grown and to the great difference in the habits of 



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