THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 239 



bacteria in the soil, and will grow well on nearly every soil 

 without inoculation. Rabbits trouble soy-beans more than cow- 

 peas, and this is a very important consideration, especially in 

 western Kansas. These several factors tend to favor a better 

 stand of cow-peas than of soy-beans. 



Second — Cow-peas are better suited for planting with corn 

 than soy-beans. Cow-peas when planted with corn not only 

 produce more forage than soy-beans, but the vining habit of 

 growth of cow-peas causes them to twine around the corn, so 

 that the vines are held up, which makes the combined crop 

 easier to harvest with a corn-binder. 



Third — The cow-pea is better adapted for hay than the soya- 

 bean. The leaves of the soy-bean drop quickly as the crop ap- 

 proaches maturity, and it is often difficult to save the hay crop 

 without the loss of a large proportion of the leaves. The 

 leaves of the cow-pea do not drop but remain green and grow- 

 ing after many of the pods are ripe and dry. Again, if the 

 soy-bean is allowed to become a little too mature, not only is 

 there a loss of leaves in curing but the stems become hard and 

 woody and less palatable to stock. On the other hand, soy- 

 beans are somewhat more readily cured and handled for 

 hay, and as pasture for cattle may excel the cow-peas, since 

 the green soy-beans are apparently better relished by stock. 



Varieties of Cow-Peas. 



During the past six years some forty varieties of cow-peas 

 and thirty-five varieties of soy-beans have been tested by the 

 Station for seed and hay production. Some of these varieties 

 have been grown but one year, many of them showing good 

 qualities have been grown two or more years, while the most 

 promising varieties have been grown throughout the six years. 

 Table IV gives the yield of different varieties which have been 

 grown for the entire six years, arranged in the order of hay 

 production. 



These varieties, being selected as the most productive from 

 the forty varieties tested, do not show striking variations in 



