56 THE COW PEA. 



exhausted soils, keeping strong soils good, and providing 

 plant food for future crops. 



Red clover has long been a standard crop, wherever it 

 could be grown, valued alike for its hay and its fertilizing 

 effect in the soil. It does not thrive on all soils or under 

 all conditions. Where it has been grown for a long time, 

 the soil becomes "clover sick" and fails to produce the 

 abundant yields of former years. It is a perennial and so 

 cannot be made profitable in the south unless it occupies 

 the land at least 18 months; in the north it is expected to 

 occupy the land at least two years. It is not adapted to 

 growth over as wide a range of territory as the cow pea, 

 and on many soils comparatively sterile or in a bad mechan- 

 ical condition fails, while the cow pea produces a heavy 

 crop. In fact, cow peas are often grown on such soils to 

 prepare the land for seeding to clover. 



Alfalfa is undoubtedly the best perennial legume for the 

 western country, where irrigation is practised, and is also of 

 great value in the southern part of the country where red 

 clover does not succeed, but it has many of the weak points 

 of red clover. Both crops are liable to "bad catches," 

 "winter killing," "dying out," "root-rot," and other troubles 

 to which the cow pea is a stranger. It is rarely profit- 

 able east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio Rivers. 



Melilotus is of great value on many soils in the south, 

 though little esteemed in the north. It only grows on 

 soils rich in lime, occupies the ground for two years, and 

 yields a hay inferior to that made from cow peas. 



