242 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Medium, Ogema, Extra Early Black, Early Green, Flat Black, 

 Early Black, Medium Early, Green, Yellow, Southern, Large 

 Yellow, Late Yellow, Medium Yellow, Green Black, and Large 

 Medium Late Yellow. 



Culture of Cow-Peas. 



There is no more metropolitan crop grown in the corn belt 

 than the cow-pea. It will grow and make profitable crops on 

 nearly every type of soil in the state of Kansas when supplied 

 with the necessary amount of moisture and given good culture. 

 The plant is better adapted to the open soils of a sandy loam 

 nature rather than to the clay loams or heavy clays. These 

 more open soils allow good aeration, which favors bacterial 

 activity and thus promotes a better development of the plant. 

 The heavy clay soil produces but a small crop the first year, but 

 the second year the crop grows better, which probably results 

 from the soil being opened and enlivened by the deep root 

 system of this plant. The deep rooting of the cow-pea in soils 

 of this character puts these soils in better condition for all 

 classes of crops which may follow the cow-peas. 



The cow-pea is everywhere recognized as a rank feeder, be 

 ing able to extract plant-food from soils almost barren to other 

 crops, thus making it well adapted for growing on ''worn-out" 

 soils as a soil renewer. It has an especial advantage over 

 some other leguminous crops in being able to grow from the 

 start upon new land without inoculation with the bacteria 

 which live upon its roots and which aid it in securing nitrogen 

 from the atmosphere. Whether these bacteria are always pres- 

 ent in sufficient numbers in soils new to the crop, or whether 

 the bacteria adhere to the seeds and are thus carried to the soil 

 with the seed, has not been proven. Tubercles may nearly al- 

 ways be found upon the roots of cow-pea plants the first season 

 the crop is grown on new land. This habit gives the cow-pea 

 an advantage over the soy-bean, since new fields must usually 

 be inoculated with the soy-bean bacteria before the crop will 

 thrive. Also, the presence of these nitrogen-gathering bac- 



