THE COW PEA ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



THE assertion that "what red clover is to the north and 

 alfalfa to the west, the cow pea is to the south," was, 

 a dozen years ago, strictly true; but to-day it is not the 

 whole truth, for the cow pea has now proved its worth and 

 great value far beyond its former home and even in those 

 sections of the country where red clover and alfalfa are 

 grown as the principal forage or manurial crops. 



In by-gone years its worth and cultivation were hardly 

 known north of the Ohio River, but during the last ten 

 years, it has been grown and made profitable crops as far 

 north as Connecticut, Ohio and Iowa, that is to say, about 

 the northern limit of thesuccessful cultivation of dent corn. 



The cow pea's botanical name is vigna sinensis, and 

 although commonly called a " pea," it is correctly speaking, 

 neither a pea nor a bean and differs widely from both. To 

 be sure, they all belong to the same family (leguminosae), 

 but so do clovers, alfalfa and vetches. According to De 

 Candolle and other authorities, it is a native of India, and 

 was cultivated there at least three thousand years ago. 

 There is no definite record of its introduction into this 

 country, but it is believed to have been sent from England 

 to the Oglethorp Colonies in Georgia about 1734. Its 

 value, even in those days of slow travel, must have been 

 speedily recognized, for by the beginning of the last century 

 the plant was common in all settled parts of the south. It, 

 a native of the tropics, is most at home in the southern 



