COWPEA 



COWPBA 



265 



seeds are dropped either by hand, by a one-horse 

 planter, by the modern corn-planter in which the 

 cells in the dropping plates may be filled to fit the 

 peas, or by the grain-Kirill with most of the outlets 

 closed. The grain-drills best adapted to this pur- 

 pose are those having gravity or friction feeding 

 devices, as the force feeds crack a much larger 

 percentage of the peas. Drilling and cultivation 

 usually afford the larger yield of seed. 



The seed. — The preferred quantity of seed for 

 sowing broadcast is four to six pecks per acre, but 

 varieties with large seeds may require a larger 

 amount. For planting in drills, two to three pecks 

 per acre are usually sufficient when the rows are 

 wide enough to permit cultivation. At the Arkan- 

 sas station, it has been found that the common 

 practice mentioned above involves a larger quan- 

 tity of seed than is necessary. In case drilled and 

 cultivated cowpeas are to be mown, care must be 

 taken to cultivate level, using ordinary culti- 

 vators, or, in the South, heel scrapes. In the 

 South, cowpeas are often sown broadcast or 

 drilled among the growing corn. The seed is 

 planted when the cultivation of the corn is nearly 

 or quite finished. 



Inoculation has never been found necessary in 

 the South because of the general prevalence in 

 southern soils of the germ that causes the devel- 

 opment of tubercles on the roots of cowpeas. 

 However, there may be small areas in which this 

 crop is seldom cultivated, where at first it will be 

 an advantage to use as inoculating material 1,000 

 or more pounds per acre of pulverized soil from 

 a field where cowpeas have recently grown and 

 developed abundant tubercles. In a number of 

 localities in the northern and western states, when 

 cowpeas were first introduced, few nodules devel- 

 oped on the roots; whenever this occurs the need 

 for inoculation is indicated. 



Pollination. — The cowpea is self-pollinated. 

 Dodson made notes of the insect visitors, and 

 concluded that insects were seldom concerned 

 in bearing pollen from bloom to bloom. Artificial 

 cross-pollination is exceedingly difficult in the 

 field, but a larger percentage of hand-pollination 

 is successful when the plants are grown in a 

 greenhouse. 



Companionrcropping. — Since the leaves of the 

 cowpea easily fall oflf in curing, unless weather 

 conditions are altogether favorable, it is some- 

 times advantageous to grow cowpeas in connec- 

 tion with some grass crop, the presence of which 

 makes curing quicker and entangles the leaves, 

 thus preventing their loss. For this purpose the 

 latest varieties of millet, especially German millet, 

 are satisfactory for mixing with the early varie- 

 ties of cowpeas, sowing one to one and one-half 

 pecks of millet per acre with one bushel or more 

 of cowpeas. Soybeans are sometimes grown in 

 connection with cowpeas. Many southern farmers 

 prefer a mixture of cowpeas and amber sorghum, 

 about one bushel of each per acre. The admix- 

 ture of sorghum greatly increases the yield on 

 fair or good land, but somewhat increases the 

 difficulty of curing the forage. A volunteer 



growth of crab-grass is, perhaps, in the Gulf states, 

 the most generally satisfactory addition to cow- 

 pea hay. 



A satisfactory mixture for the silo consists of 

 drilled corn and cowpeas, the latter sometimes 

 being drilled in several weeks after the planting 

 of the corn. Although the cowpeas usually con- 

 stitute the smaller part of this forage, their 

 presence serves to increase the percentage of 

 protein in the silage. 



Manuring. — The cowpea is most useful on the 

 poorest grades of land, but often needs the help 

 of commercial fertilizers. In the South, the most 

 general requirement is for phosphoric acid, although 

 on some poor and very sandy soils the addition 

 of potash as well as phosphate. is profitable. Tests 

 in Delaware and Connecticut indicated that pot- 

 ash, which was used at the rate of 160 pounds 

 (muriate of potash) per acre, was the principal 

 fertilizer needed. A common application is 200 to 

 400 pounds of acid phosphate per acre, to which, on 

 soils needing potash, may be added fifty pounds 

 of muriate of potash or an equivalent amount 

 of kainit. The cowpea is a leguminous plant, and 

 so, after reaching the stage at which its roots are 

 abundantly supplied with tubercles, derives its 

 nitrogen very largely from the air. Hence, the 

 use of nitrogenous fertilizers is not generally very 

 economical, though the cowpea, in common with 

 nearly all other plants, thrives best in the pres- 

 ence of vegetable matter, and profits greatly by 

 an application of stable manure, of which, how- 

 ever, more advantageous use can usually be made. 

 The yield is very slightly increased by applications 

 of nitrate of soda, and nitrogenous fertilizers have 

 little effect on the composition of the resulting 

 forage. In one test at the Connecticut Storrs 

 Experiment Station (Report 1893), potash not 

 only increased the yield but increased the per- 

 centage of protein in the forage. 



Harvesting. — In curing cowpea hay, the same 

 rules obtain as in curing clover hay. Especial care 

 must be taken to leave the cut forage exposed to 

 the sun in the swath for as short a time as practi- 

 cable, the curing being completed in cocks, or in 

 such other way as to protect the bulk of the hay 

 from long exposure to the sun. No definite rule 

 can be given, but it is usual to rake the hay twenty- 

 four to thirty-six hours after mowing and to pile 

 it in cocks the afternoon of the second day after 

 mowing. Here in fair weather it should remain for 

 two or three days, at the end of which time the 

 cocks may be opened for a few hours before being 

 hauled to the barn. 



One method of hay-curilig is thus described in 

 Bulletin No. 40, of the Mississippi Experiment 

 Station : "The mower is started in the morning as 

 soon as the dew is off and run until noon. . . .. 

 As soon as the top of the cut vine is well wilted 

 the field is run over with a tedder. . . . When 

 the crop is very heavy the tedder is used a second 

 time. Vines that have been cut in the morning and 

 teddered in the afternoon are usually dry enough 

 to put in small cocks the next afternoon, and 

 if the weather promises to be favorable they are 



