556 FOE AGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



grown as ornamentals. One variety with white, waxy 

 pods is excellent as a vegetable. 



The adaptations of the bonavist are practically identi- 

 cal with those of the cowpea, and it may be culti- 

 vated by identical methods. When grown in fields for 

 hay, they have given very promising results in southern 

 Kansas and northern Texas, being at least equal to cow- 

 peas in yield and palatability. Some varieties are heavy 

 seed producers, yielding about as much as cowpeas. The 

 habit of all the varieties is very much more viny than 

 cowpeas, in a general way being intermediate between 

 cowpeas and velvet beans. When grown in Virginia 

 with corn for silage or with sorghum for hay, they have 

 outyielded cowpeas, the vines being much more rapid 

 growers. There are two possible objections to them, 

 however. The vines grow very much more rapidly than 

 the cornstalks and tend to bind the rows of corn together, 

 and there is also a much larger mass of herbage covering 

 the ground than in the case of cowpeas, much of which 

 cannot be saved in harvesting. 



In Cuba this bean has been considered superior to the 

 cowpea. Like many other legumes, however, the bonavist 

 is susceptible both to the root-knot caused by nematodes 

 and to wilt, although it is possible that varieties resistant 

 to these diseases may be found, as has been the case with 

 the cowpea. At the present time, however, the bonavist 

 offers no particular promise throughout the cotton region 

 except in Texas. In drought resistance it is at least equal 

 to the cowpea and apparently somewhat superior. In 

 all respects it will have to meet the cowpea in competi- 

 tion, and it still remains to be determined whether in any 

 part of the country it will be sufficiently superior to the 

 cowpea to warrant its general culture. The roots are 



