200 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



same for the double purpose of salting the animals and preventing 

 mold. If the clover must be put up when thought to be a little too 

 green, alternating layers of straw will do much toward absorbing the 

 excess of moisture. 



Brown clover hay is made by stacking or mowing away the hay 

 when it has just reached the wilting stage. The air is excluded and 

 it becomes a compact mass. The nay must be free from external 

 moisture if heating is to be avoided. There is therefore some danger 

 of spoiling when this process is attempted by those unfamiliar with 

 the process. This method has a further disadvantage in that the hay 

 is very heavy at the time when it must be handled for stacking. 



Cowpea Hay. "Well-cured cowpea hay is a most valuable dry 

 forage, ranking much above the common grass hays in feeding 

 value and being at least equal in this respect to good clover and 

 alfalfa hay. With the area of wild grasses decreasing from year 

 to year in certain localities, and the tame grasses in many cases failing 

 to produce adequate yields, a heavy yielding crop with a short period 

 of growth, like some varieties of cowpeas, becomes an important 

 source of hay. The principal reason why the production of cowpea 

 hay is not commensurate with its high value is the difficulty in cur- 

 ing the large succulent vines. Experiments in growing cowpeas as 

 a hay crop and in handling the same economically and successfully 

 during the curing process have been made at the Alabama, Arkansas, 

 and Mississippi Experiment Stations among others, and the results 

 obtained are here briefly restated in the hope that the information 

 may be of assistance in bringing into practice more effective and 

 less costly methods of curing, and a consequent increase in the 

 production of this kind of hay. The Alabama Station sought to 

 facilitate curing and to avoid the loss of the leaflets, a most nu- 

 tritious portion of the plant, which readily break from the vines in 

 curing and handling, by growing cowpeas in a mixture with some 

 grass crop. The principal difficulty here lies in obtaining varieties 

 which arrive at the proper stage for haymaking at the same time with 

 the grass. On good soils German millet grown with the Whippoor- 

 will cowpea proved useful in facilitating curing. The use of 1 peck 

 of millet seed and 1 bushel of cowpeas per acre is recommended. If 

 grown with a late variety the millet will be ready for cutting while 

 the cowpea is still too immature to cure well and to make good hay. 

 A test was made of planting Wonderful cowpea, a late variety, and 

 drilling millet to within 6 inches of the cowpea rows seventeen 

 days later, but still the millet ripened before the cowpea was ready 

 for haying. While the millet did not add to the yield of hay, Amber 

 sorghum drilled with Wonderful cowpea on May 14 gave a material 

 increase in the yield, and was ready for mowing at the same time 

 as the cowpea. The hay of the sorghum mixture was more moist 

 than that obtained from the millet mixtures, and therefore is likely 

 to present greater difficulties in curing; and this will be especially 

 BO in unfavorable weather. With these results as a basis, the station 

 recommends growing German millet as an aid in curing early 

 varieties of cowpea, and Amber sorghum as a means of increasing 



