266 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



allowed to remain in the cocks two or three days 

 before they are hauled to the barn. If it should 

 rain before the vines are put in cocks they are 

 not touched until the surface is well dried, and 

 are then tedded as though freshly cut. We find 

 the only safe plan is to put the hay for a few 

 weeks in a stack covered with straw, or, still 

 better, in a barn, . where it should not be piled 

 too deep. After a month it may be packed without 

 danger of finding moldy or dusty hay in the cen- 

 ters of the bales." 



Some persons store cowpea hay in the barn 

 when merely well wilted, and disavow any fear 

 of spontaneous combustion or molding. When this 

 is done it is necessary that the crop be nearly 

 mature, about one-half of the pods having assumed 

 a straw-color; that there be no external moisture 

 on the plants when placed in the mow; and that the 

 hay be not moved, no matter how hot it may 

 become, since forking over the hay would admit 

 additional oxygen that would facilitate fermenta- 

 tion or combustion. Until more is known of the 

 conditions under which this procedure may be 

 safe, it cannot be generally recommended. 



In the southern states, September and October 

 are usually the driest months, and if the crop can 

 be sown at such time as to bring the haying 

 season in these months, this, together with the 

 use of haycaps (Fig. 279), will greatly reduce the 

 danger of loss in curing. 



The harvesting of cowpea seed is not yet on 

 a satisfactory basis. The pods are usually picked 

 by hand and afterwards shelled by beating with 

 a flail. Pickers have been patented and tested, 

 but never extensively manufactured nor adopted. 

 Hand-picking, the usual procedure, is too slow. 

 The most rapid method is to cut the vines after 

 most of the pods have matured, using a reaper or 

 scythe; carefully to cure the whole in cocks; and 

 to pass the vines and pods through a shredder, 

 which cracks very few of the peas. Some persons 

 advise running the vines through a grain thresher, 

 driven at low speed and with blank concaves, pre- 

 cautions which in our experience have not entirely 

 prevented the cracking of a considerable propor- 

 tion of the peas. 



The cowpea is useful for the following purposes: 



(1) For the improvement of the land, through 

 the addition of vegetable matter and of nitrogen 

 secured from the soil air. 



(2) For forage that may be utilized either as 

 hay, as a soiling crop, for silage, or for pasturage. 



(3) For the production of a highly nutritious 

 seed crop that serves as food for mankind and 

 for domestic animals. 



. (4) As a crop to fit the land for sod, in the 

 North. 



The most profitable means of utilizing the crop 

 is to use the top as forage, and to secure in 

 addition the very considerable fertilizing effect of 

 the roots, stubble and other residue left on the 

 land. By this method the forage is utilized twice, 

 once as food for animals and later in the form 



of barnyard manure, which will then be very rich 

 in nitrogen. If the crop cannot be converted into 

 hay, the next best use is to pasture it, thus leav- 

 ing most of the fertilizing material on the land. 



The analyses heretofore given show that all 

 parts of the cowpea plant are rich 'in nitrogen. 

 The hay is similar in composition to wheat-bran, 

 and experiments at the Alabama Experiment Sta- 

 tion (Bulletin No. 123) showed that one ton of 

 cowpea hay was practically equal to 1,720 pounds 

 of wheat-bran in the ration of dairy cows. At 

 this station, the grazing of cowpeas by dairy 

 cows showed a value of about five dollars per 

 acre of cowpeas grown as a catch-crop between 

 the rows of corn, and a value of about eight 

 dollars per acre in low-priced pork w^en nearly 

 ripe cowpeas were grazed by hogs (Bulletin No. 

 118). The cowpea makes a satisfactory silage 

 when passed through a silage cutter and well 

 weighted in the silo. It is usually preferable, 

 however, to mix in the silo cowpeas with corn or 

 sorghum. 



The cowpea as a fertilizer. — What clover is to the 

 North and West as a means of improving the fer- 

 tility of the soil, the cowpea is to regions south 

 of the clover-belt. A ton of cowpea hay contains 

 about forty pounds of nitrogen; hence, with a 

 yield of two tons of hay per acre, we have in the 

 entire plant, including roots and stubble, more than 

 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre, equivalent to 

 more than in 600 pounds of nitrate of soda. Of the 

 total nitrogen in the plant, that in the roots and 

 stubble usually constitutes 20 to 40 per cent, 

 averaging about 30 per cent. 



Crops grown after the stubble of the cowpea, 

 yield considerably more than when following non- 

 leguminous plants, but usually much less than 

 when the entire growth of the preceding crop of 

 cowpeas has been plowed under as fertilizer. 



Diseases and insect enemies. 



In parts of the southern states near the coast, 

 and especially on sandy soil long in cultivation, 

 the cowpea is subject to the cowpea wilt (Neoeos- 

 mospora vasinfeeta, var. tracheiphila) and to injuries 

 of the root by nematode worms (Heterodera ra- 

 dicicola). To both maladies the Iron variety is 

 practically or entirely immune. Mildew, leaf-spot 

 and other diseases of the foliage occur, but exten- 

 sive damage from these is unusual. The leaves are 

 sometimes eaten by grasshoppers and other insects. 



Literature. 



The literature on cowpeas is extensive. MucV 

 information will be found in the agricultural press 

 and agricultural books. A few bulletins and 

 reports are mentioned here: 



Alabama (College) Experiment Station Bulletins, 

 Nos. 14, 107, 114, 118, 120, 122 and 123; Ala- 

 bama (Canebrake) Experiment Station Bulletins, 

 Nos. 9, 10 and 22; Arkansas Experiment Station 

 Bulletins, Nos. 31, 58, 61, 68, 70 and 77 ; Connect- 

 icut (Storrs) Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 

 6 and 23; Reports 1888, 1893, 1895 ; Delaware 

 Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 46, 55 and 61; 



