170 Soiling. 



will. Where a dense mass of vines is wanted to re- 

 main all winter on the ground, Calico, Gourd, Black, 

 and Constitution are preferable. 



" The roots of these plants penetrate deep into the 

 soil, like lucern, drawing their food from beyond the 

 reach of most other plants, keeping the soil porous, 

 and above all their power to assimilate nitrogen, the 

 most costly of all plant foods from the atmosphere 

 (four-fifths of the weight of the air is nitrogen), not 

 through the leaves of the plant, but through the 

 bacteria that have their seat in the root tubercles 

 through which the free, atmospheric nitrogen is as- 

 similated. Nor is this all. The dense foliage pre- 

 vents the soil from baking. The roots and stubble 

 alone of an acre of average cow peas contain 22.6 

 Ib. of nitrogen, 5.9 Ib. phosphoric acid, and 14.5 Ib. 

 of potash." 



Two bushels per acre is about the amount of 

 seed, usually sown. The beauty of this and the 

 clover crop is that you can take a large crop from 

 the soil, and still leave the soil in better condition 

 than before the crop was taken. 



SOJA BEAN. 



Although known in the Southern States for a long 

 time, it has never been fully appreciated, but prom- 

 ises to become a great rival of the cow pea. It pro- 

 duces a great amount of green forage, which seems 

 to cure easier than cow pea vines, and proves more 

 productive of peas. The plants grow erect to the 



