600 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



THE PRINCIPAL GREEN-MANURE CROPS. 



Red Clover. This is the most common legume used in rota- 

 tions in the Northern States. It is usually grown with timothy, fol- 

 lowing wheat or other small grains. As a general rule the timothy 

 seed is sown in the fall with the grain, and the clover is sown the 

 following spring. While the beneficial effect of plowing under red 

 clover or red clover sod is well known, there has been but little work 

 done at the agricultural experiment stations to determine accurately 

 the amount of benefit secured. Results obtained at the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station gave an average yield of 35 7/10 bushels 

 of corn where this crop was grown year after year on the same land. 

 In rotations, the average yield was 55 1/10 bushels for the first crop 

 after clover and 48 3/5 bushels for the second crop after clover. 



The Cowpea. This is used more than any other crop as a soil 

 renovator in the South. Its use is rapidly increasing, but is yet far 

 from general. During the past few years the high price of the seed 

 has tended to discourage more extensive growing. Recent progress 

 in the harvesting of cowpea seed by machinery will doubtless ma- 

 terially reduce its cost. The seed is at present almost entirely picked 

 by hand. The cowpea is characterized by remarkable ability to 

 grow in poor soils and to cover the ground so densely as to choke out 

 most weeds. It usually bears an abundance of tubercles on its roots, 

 whether the soil has been inoculated or not, although in new local- 

 ities where the cowpea has not been previously grown the tubercles 

 may be absent. In such cases inoculation is necessary, for it must 

 always be remembered that it is through the tubercles on the roots 

 that the beneficial effects of the cowpea or other legume largely de- 

 pend. 



Cowpeas are very commonly planted between rows of corn at 

 the time of the last cultivation, or they are broadcasted upon the 

 stubble of small grains. Cowpeas, however, like other crops, respond 

 markedly to cultivation and there is a growing tendency to plant 

 them upon well prepared soil. This practice results in a great in- 

 crease of the crop, whether grown for hay or for seed. 



More numerous experiments have been conducted in this coun- 

 try to determine the effects of cowpeas used as a green manure than 

 have been devoted to all other leguminous crops combined. Almost 

 without exception these experiments have indicated a very beneficial 

 effect upon the succeeding crop. The benefit often lasts two or three 

 years. These good results follow on practically all succeeding crops, 

 whether cotton, corn, sorghum, or small grains. Except on me 

 poorest soils careful experiments show that it is decidedly more 

 profitable to use the cowpea crop as hay or pasture and then plow 

 under the stubble than it is to plow under the whole crop. While 

 plowing under the whole crop produces as a rule a greater effect, it 

 is not enough greater to equal the value of the co\vpea crop as feed. 



Soy Beans. These are adapted to a much wider range of cli- 

 mate than cowpeas, being grown successfully even in Ontario and 

 Massachusetts. As a forage crop soy beans have some points of su- 

 periority over cowpeas, the hay being somewhat easier to cure and 



