HARVESTING 423 



Cow peas are occasionally sown with other forage crops, such as 

 German millet or sorghum. By mixing in this way with another 

 crop, it is found much easier to cure than pure cow pea forage. 



Time of Sowing. Cow peas, being hot-weather plants, should 

 not be sown until the ground is well warmed in the spring, and there 

 is no danger of frosts. In the southern States, planting may be 

 continued from early spring up to August. Usually the earlier 

 plantings produce a heavy growth of forage, while the later plantings 

 produce the largest seed crop. 



Inoculation for cow peas is very seldom required. While they 

 will usually do bptter when the soil is well inoculated with the proper 

 bacteria, it is very seldom that the crop will fail for lack of inocula- 



FIG. 181. Seeds of cow peas on left and soy beans on right. 



tion. In fact, in some cases inoculation has shown very little 

 benefit. 



Harvesting. Cow pea hay is quite difficult to cure, for the 

 reason that the stems are large and dry very slowly, while the leaves 

 are thin, dry rapidly, and are apt to be lost. ' It is usually considered 

 best to wait until the first pods are ripened, or even a week or two 

 later, as it is much more difficult to cure plants when very green 

 than when they are partly mature. Many devices for drying out 

 the hay have been invented by the growers, but in most cases it is 

 best to cure the hay as well as possible in small shocks on the land, 

 and then put up in very narrow stacks. 



The yields of hay are extremely variable, depending on the 

 climatic and soil conditions, but two to three tons per acre of cured 

 hay arc expected under fair conditions. The seed crop is even more 



