PEA*-rORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



THE assertion that "what red clover is to the north and 

 alfalfa to the west, the cow pea is to the south," was, 

 a dozen years ago, strictly true. To-day it is not the 

 whole truth, for the cow pea has now proved its adaptability 

 and great value far beyond its former home, and even in 

 those sections of the country where red clover and alfalfa 

 are grown as the principal forage or manurial crops. 



In bygone years its worth and cultivation were 

 hardly known north of the Ohio River, but during the last 

 ten years it has been grown and made profitable crops as far 

 north as Connecticut, Ohio, and Iowa, that is to say, about 

 the northern limit of the successful cultivation of dent corn. 



The cow pea's botanical name is Vigna catjang. Al- 

 though commonly called a "pea," it is, correctly speaking, 

 neither a pea nor a bean, and differs widely from both. To 

 be sure, they all belong to the same family (leguminosae) , 

 but so do clovers, alfalfa and vetches. According to De 

 Candolle and other authorities, it is a native of India, and 

 was cultivated there at least three thousand years ago. 

 There is no definite record of its introduction into this 

 country, but it is believed to have been sent from England 

 to the Oglethorpe Colonies in Georgia about 1734. Its 

 value must have been speedily recognized, for by the 

 beginning of the last century knowledge of the plant had 

 spread, even in those days of slow communication, to all 

 settled parts of the south. A native of the tropics, it is 

 most at home in the southern states, but, by its readiness 



