50 THE BOOK OF CORN 



Clay, Black Eye and New Era. The Black Eye and 

 Red are the favorites in central United States, while 

 the Clay, Whippoorwill, New Era and Black Eye are 

 most extensively grown under southern conditions. 

 The Whippoorwill, Clay and Black Eye have particular 

 trailing habits of growth, while the Black and Red are 

 more bushy and upright growing varieties. The only 

 objection to these crops comes from the fact that with 

 present machinery there is some difficulty in planting 

 and harvesting them. This difficulty' will disappear 

 when machinery especially adapted to the handling of 

 these crops comes into general use. In localities where 

 live stock farming is practiced these crops are gener- 

 ally used for soiling or for pasture. 



The seedbed for cowpeas is prepared as for com, 

 by plowing medium to shallow and thoroughly pulver- 

 izing the ground. The cowpeas are seeded broadcast 

 or in drills, the drill being, most satisfactory because 

 the fields can then be cultivated. In drilling, the rows 

 should be about thirty inches apart and the seed from 

 two to four inches apart in the row. If the crop is 

 grown for seed the rows should be from thirty to 

 thirty-six inches apart, with the same number of seed 

 in the row as in the thirty-inch rows. In this case it 

 will be necessary to use about one-third of a bushel 

 of seed per acre. The cowpeas should be drilled in 

 to a depth of two or two and a half inches, and care 

 should be exercised not to exceed this depth. The 

 field should be cultivated with weeder or harrow until 

 the young plants come up. This will prevent the 

 starting of weeds. This is the most important point 

 in all cowpea cultivation, as the weeds will quickly 

 check the growth of the cowpeas and cannot be re- 

 moved without hand labor after they once get a start. 



