COWPEAS 



145 



conditions than will clover. It is the best plant to 

 start poor, sterile, abandoned fields on a course of 

 usefulness. When all other plants, even rye, make 

 a sickly showing, cowpeas, under good cultivation 

 and a light application of superphosphate, make a 

 fine growth. When plowed in, the soil is improved 

 mechanically, and much nitrogen added. The cow- 

 pea will grow on poor, rough soil if a decent seed 

 bed is made, and a little food used to start them. 

 Do not be discouraged if the first sowing does 

 not make much showing. Plow it all in as soon as 

 frosted, and sow 

 the land to rye, 

 using I bushel 

 an acre for a 

 winter cover 

 crop, to hold the 

 soil. In May, 

 when the rye is 

 about to head, 

 plow it down and 

 make another 

 seed bed for the 

 cowpeas. The 

 soil becomes in- 

 oculated with 

 bacteria the first 

 crop and now the 

 cowpea will be 



COWPEA RACK 



While a great deal of cowpea hay is 

 cured on racks, the greater part of the 

 crop, especially in the South, is cured in 

 L] J . . < a windrow, or in small shocks weighing 

 enaoiea to taKe from 100 to 300 pounds, a rack such as 

 mrtro rijf i-,->rro.i 's here pictured is very excellent, but it 

 more nitrogen ^^^g much to the cost of curing the hay. 



from the air. 



Naturally the soil will be more congenial and the 

 growth surprising. As a nitrogen gatherer, a humus 

 maker, and a consumer of rough plant food, the 



