100 



FORAGE CROPS 



It bears bluish purple flowers which produce pods filled with 

 about six brown or brownish black seeds. Winter vetch has been 

 found especially valuable in the improvement of poor, sandy, and 

 gravelly soils. It may be sown in the spring, but the most satis- 

 factory results are obtained when it is sown in the fall. This is a 

 crop that our farmers should learn more about. 



Cowpeas. The cultivation of cowpeas was carried on at an 

 early age by the Orientals, who used them not only as a forage crop 

 but also as an article of diet. The cowpea is one of the principal 

 forage crops in the South Atlantic and South Central States. Under 

 favorable conditions they have been grown as far north as Wiscon- 

 sin and the New England States. The cowpea is a strong feeding 

 annual which adapts itself readily to any ordinary soil and climate. 

 It grows on thin poor soil where other crops make a failure, and is a 

 valuable soil improver, especially when the plants are plowed under 

 while green. The time of seeding varies according to the climate, 

 but in the Southern States, June, July, and August are considered 

 the best months. The amount of seed sown varies from a peck to 

 three or more bushels. Experiments seem to indicate that drill- 

 ing is the most satis- 

 factory method of 

 planting. It is also 

 frequently found ad- 

 visable to sow cow- 

 peas with some other 

 crop, expecially mil- 

 let or sorghum. 



The Soy Bean, or 

 soja bean, is a native 

 of China and Japan, 

 but it grows well in 

 the United States, 

 especially in the States of the corn belt region. Like the cowpea, 

 it is a great soil renovator, and is much used by some farmers for 

 this purpose. This plant is remarkable for the large and abundant 

 tubercles found upon its roots. It is a hardy, upright annual, 

 growing usually to the height of three feet or more. It bears 

 violet-tinted flowers, which are small and inconspicuous. Later 



Bean Harvester. 



