48 THE BOOK OF CORN 



the rows should be about thirty inches apart and the 

 seed from two to four inches apart in the row. If the 

 crop is grown for seed the rows should be at least 

 thirty-six inches apart with the same number of seed in 

 the row as in the thirty-inch rows. In this case it will 

 be necessary to use about three-quarters to one 

 and one-quarter bushels of seed per acre. The cow- 

 peas should be drilled in at least two inches deep and 

 the field cultivated with weeder or harrow until the 

 young plants come up. This will prevent the starting 

 of weeds. This is the most important point in all cow- 

 pea cultivation, as the weeds will quickly check the 

 growth of the cowpeas and cannot be removed without 

 hand labor after they once get a start. 



When grown simply for soil fertilizing purposes, 

 the crop should be plowed under in the fall, when it 

 will decompose before spring and be in shape for feed- 

 ing the corn plants. When it is desirable to save the 

 crop, it can be cut with the mower, cured, the seed 

 threshed out in an ordinary separator. Part of the 

 concaves and teeth should be removed and the machine 

 run slowly in order not to break or injure the seed. If 

 the seed is to be used for future planting, it should be 

 dried before storing away in a bin. Otherwise it is 

 likely to heat and the vitality will be destroyed. 



Before planting the seed it is absolutely necessary 

 to test it in the sand germinator. Select samples of 

 fifty seeds from ten representative places in the seed 

 bin and mix together. Take out two hundred seeds 

 and test in the germinator. The straw can be baled 

 after threshing and stored in a barn or under some 

 shelter. Experiments in growing corn on cowpea land 

 prove that cowpeas are very valuable soil fertilizers. 

 The growth of this crop is rapidly extending to all corn 

 growing sections. By drilling in cowpeas between the 

 rows of corn after the last cultivation a considerable 



