GRASS AND HAY 103 



as the vines are left in bunches of very convenient size for curing and 

 handling. 



Cowpeas for Soil Improvement. The beneficial results of 

 growing cowpeas are due largely to the ability of the plants, like 

 those of alfalfa and red clover, to take nitrogen from the air by 

 means of the bacteria which live in the nodules on the roots. Cow- 

 peas also improve markedly the physical condition of the soil. This, 

 taken in connection with their ability to produce a crop quickly on 

 even the poorer soils, makes the cowpea particularly valuable both 

 as a catch crop and in regular rotations when utilized either for hay 

 or seed production. 



At the present time the most popular rotation for the entire 

 South is one which allows the largest possible area to be planted in 

 cotton each year. A system of cropping which is in general use is 

 three years in cotton, the fourth year in corn and cowpeas, and 

 then three years in cotton again. This system allows three-fourths 

 of the farm to be in cotton each year, and is applicable to all of the 

 better agricultural land. On the poorer soils of the cotton belt it 

 is likely that better results would be secured by growing cotton only 

 two years and corn and cowpeas the third year. This would leave 

 two-thirds of the farm for cotton each year, and would undoubtedly 

 be an excellent system of cropping. The Alabama Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station reports an increase in yield in one case of 696 

 pounds of seed cotton to the acre, or 83 per cent, due to plowing 

 under a crop of cowpea vines on land which had been in cotton 

 the previous season. The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion secured an increase in yield of 59 per cent where a crop of 

 cowpeas had been grazed the preceding year. 



Practically the same plan of rotation is followed in the sugar- 

 cane districts of Louisiana. Three crops of cane are taken off the 

 land, and the fourth year it is planted to cowpeas or to corn and 

 cowpeas. The work stock are fed almost exclusively on pea-vine 

 hay or are grazed on cowpeas in the cornfield after the corn has 

 been gathered. This rotation gives excellent results in the succeed- 

 ing crops of cane. 



A rotation of wheat or oats and cowpeas is giving excellent 

 results in parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Cowpeas 

 are sown on the land immediately after the removal of the grain 

 crop and are utilized for hay or seed or for pasture. Grain is sown 

 again in the fall, thus making two crops a year from the same land. 

 In many instances landowners in Arkansas and Missouri have al- 

 lowed tenants the use of land free of charge for producing a crop 

 of cowpeas, stipulating, however, that the land must be well pre- 

 pared. When the soil is given good preparation before sowing the 

 cowpeas, it is not necessary to plow in the autumn for the grain. 

 The fall preparation usually consists of disking the cowpea stubble 

 and sowing the grain witn a drill. Occasionally the seeding is 

 done with a disk drill without any preliminary preparation. The 

 increase in yield of wheat due to the cowpeas is generally given as 

 from 3 to 5 bushels per acre. At the Missouri Agricultural Experi- 



