GROWING FEED FOR FATTENING SHEEP 81 



Other ways of utilizing the cowpeas. The words of this 

 extensive farmer sum up and state very clearly the opinions 

 and results obtained by others all over the country. Many 

 say they are confident that the corn is benefited enough 

 by the presence of the cowpeas to pay to plant them even 

 though the vines are not pastured by any kind of stock. 

 Cowpeas are seldom, if ever, harvested by themselves when 

 sown in the corn, so it is hard to estimate what the yield 

 would be. In some cases in the South enough of the pods 

 are gathered by hand to furnish the seed for the succeeding 

 year's crop, but this is hardly practicable on a commercial 

 scale. A very feasible and profitable practice is to cut the 

 corn with the pea vines twined about it before the vines 

 are killed by frost. Let the cowpeas and corn cure in the 

 shock, and you then have some of the most palatable and 

 valuable stover that can be obtained, and it is relished by 

 all classes of stock. 



Broadcasting rape. The part of the cornfield that is to 

 be planted to rape should be sown at laying-by time. It is 

 customary to broadcast the rape ahead of the last cultivation, 

 using from three to four pounds per acre ; however, one 

 would be more certain of a stand if the seed were drilled 

 instead of broadcasted. Ordinarily the rape does not make 

 a very heavy growth until the corn has passed the height of 

 its growing season, but from then until cold weather it does 

 remarkably well. The rape makes its best growth in the 

 fence corners and at the ends of the corn rows, where it 

 receives more sunshine than is possible in the dense portions 

 of the corn. Here it serves a very useful purpose in taking 

 the place of the weeds. It may also be sown along the fence 

 rows in the cornfields where the cowpeas were planted, and 

 in this way the sheep that graze down the cowpeas will have 



