52 THE COW PEA. 



7. Cow peas may be planted whenever the ground is 

 warm enough for planting beans or melons. 



8. Drill-planting requires less seed and more cultivation, 

 and the yield is usually heavier than when sown broadcast. 



9. When saved for hay the crop should be handled like 

 red clover, but must not be baled until some weeks after it 

 is gathered or before it is thoroughly dry.. Its yield is 

 usually from 2 to 3 tons per acre of dry hay. 



10. Seed stored for winter should be treated, at the 

 time of storing, with an ounce of bisulphide of carbon to 

 each bushel to prevent injury by weevils. This treatment 

 should be repeated in the spring if the seed is kept until 

 summer. 



11. The cow pea is one of the best plants for temporary 

 pastures, and, by a proper selection of varieties, gives good 

 grazing from early summer until late fall. As a grazing 

 crop it is especially valuable for producing milk, growing 

 young stock (especially pigs) and fattening all kinds of 

 domestic fowls and animals. 



12. The cow pea is one of the most effective fertilizing 

 plants. It draws its nitrogen from the air and so free of 

 cost obtains and stores this otherwise most expensive 

 element of fertility. 



13. A heavy growth of vines usually pays better grazed 

 or made into hay; a light crop, on stiff soil, is more profit- 

 able plowed under green; and a light crop, on very sandy 

 soil, or on soil liable to wash during winter, is best left to 

 decay on the surface of the ground. 



