THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 231 



Pasture. 



While the cow-pea, because of its general habit of growth, is 

 not a natural pasture plant, few farmers are using it for this 

 purpose. Maturing as it does in the latter part of the summer, 

 the crop furnishes succulent pasture during the time when 

 natural pastures run short. When used with corn to supplement 

 the ration, such pasture can hardly be excelled, especially for 

 hogs and sheep. The stock are usually turned on cow-peas when 

 the crop has reached the stage of maturity considered best for 

 hay, or when some of the pods have begun to turn yellow. Cattle 

 are usually turned on earlier than sheep or hogs ; hogs may be 

 pastured on ripe peas. If the stock are turned on the field too 

 early, before the plants have attained full size, there is more 

 waste from the trampling. The plant at this time is more watery 

 and does not furnish its full feeding value. As with many 

 green-pasture crops there is danger of bloat when sheep or cattle 

 are first turned onto cow-peas, yet the danger is far less than with 

 alfalfa, and is lessened as the cow-peas become more mature. 



Where cow-peas are to be used for pasture, especially with 

 hogs, it would be preferable to plant with corn. In this way 

 the mixture makes a ration on which hogs do exceptionally well 

 without other grain. When planted with corn for hogging 

 down, the usual method is to plant the same as for ensilage, 

 taking care not to plant the corn so thick as to stunt the growth 

 of the cow-peas. Another method, and one often practiced in 

 pasturing sheep in the more humid climates, is to plant the cow- 

 peas in the corn between the rows at the last cultivation. At this 

 station we have planted cow-peas in corn at the last cultivation 

 for a number of seasons, and they usually make a fair growth if 

 there is sufficient moisture, but when the early fall is dry the cow- 

 peas do not make much growth until the corn is mature. There 

 seems to have been no injurious effect on the corn resulting from 

 this practice, but rather in most seasons the result has been an 

 increased yield of corn in fields in which cow-peas have been 

 planted. Table I gives the comparisons and yields for five years 



