53 
ments at Southern stations have unanimously proved that the best way to util- 
ize fertilizers so produced by a crop of cowpeas is to cut the vines for hay, 
returning the manure to the fields. A common practice is to plow under a crop 
t the end of the season, or sometimes to permit it to remain on the ground 
through the winter, both of which methods result in a loss of a very large part 
of the value of a crop through leaching. The best method, if the crop is turned 
under, is to »t once plant a winter forage crop to cover the surface of the ground 
and so prevent washing by the winter rains. The cultivation of cowpeas has 
E extended to California. Some of the varieties having a short season may be 
grown in the prairie region as far north as Iowa and Nebraska, and are there of 
considerable value for dairying purposes, because of their resistance to drought, 
furnishing on rich soil a palatable and uutrifious food during the hottest and 
> driest summer months. 
A perennial of the Lily family, with stout, woody trunk several feet high, crowned 
a top with a rosette of long sword-shaped leaves. Of no value as a forage 
plant except in seasons of drought, when the cattle and sheep on the ranges of 
Texas and Arizona, where it grows, eat the leaves, perhaps as much for the water 
| Yucca baccata. Spanish bayonet; Bear grass. 
which they contain as for food 
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