60 THE COW PEA. 



7. Cow peas may be planted whenever the ground is 

 warm enough for planting beans or melons. 



8. Drill-planting requires less seed and more cultiva- 

 tion, and the yield is usually heavier than when sown 

 broadcast. 



9. When saved for hay the crop should be handled like 

 red clover, but must not be baled until some weeks after it 

 is gathered or before it is thoroughly dry. Its yield is 

 usually from 2 to 3 tons of dry hay per acre. 



i o . Seed stored for winter should be treated at the time 

 of storing, with an ounce of bisulphide of carbon to each 

 bushel to prevent injury by weevils. This treatment should 

 be repeated in the spring if the seed is kept until summer. 



11. The cow pea is one of the best plants for tem- 

 porary pastures, and, by a proper selection of varieties, 

 gives good grazing from early summer until late fall. As a 

 grazing crop it is especially valuable for producing milk, 

 growing young stock (especially pigs) , and fattening all kinds 

 of domestic fowls and animals. 



12. The cow pea is one of the most effective fertilizing 

 plants. It draws its nitrogen from the air, and in this 

 way obtains and stores this otherwise most expensive 

 element of fertility free of cost. 



13. A heavy growth of vines usually pays better 

 grazed or made into hay; a light crop, on stiff soil, is more 

 profitable ploughed under green, and a light crop, on very 

 sandy soil, or on soil liable to wash during winter, is best 

 left to decay on the surface of the ground. 



