THE COW PEA. 33 



thoroughly dry. Instead of gathering the seed separately, 

 some delay cutting until a considerable proportion of the 

 pods is ripe, and then depend on the peas shelled in 

 handling and found in the bottom of the mow for a seed- 

 supply for the next crop. 



Threshing may be done any time after the pods are 

 thoroughly dry ; on farms where only a few bushels of seed 

 are saved this is usually done with a flail. When grown in 

 quantity, they are commonly threshed more easily, rapidly 

 and economically by a "pea-huller." Sometimes the crop 

 is cured as hay, and then run through an ordinary threshing 

 machine from which the concaves and alternate teeth of the 

 cylinder have been removed, and the speed reduced by 

 putting on a 20 or 24 inch cylinder head. The yield of seed 

 varies greatly, ranging from 6 to 10 bushels per acre, grown 

 between corn rows and only once picked, to from 20 to 30 

 bushels, or more, grown alone, allowed fully to mature and 

 all the seed saved. 



The same weevil which attacks the garden bean, lays 

 her eggs on cow pea pods before they are gathered, and 

 there is not now any known means of preventing her doing 

 so. If the seed be stored where there is an even tempera- 

 ture, a few degrees above freezing, there is further danger 

 of a second and third brood hatching during the winter, and 

 seriously injuring the seed before spring. This injury can 

 be prevented by treating the stored seed with carbon bisul- 

 phide, which affords a cheap and complete protection. The 

 treatment is very simple and should be given as soon as the 



