268 Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



grain) with cowpeas between each crop would give increased 

 yields of wheat would depend upon the quantities of phosphoric 

 acid and potash in the soil and becoming available for each crop. 

 That the cowpea stubble will supply a sufficient amount of 

 nitrogen is evident by half a hundred experiments conducted 

 by the Station within the past six years. This nitrogen, or at 

 least the greater portion of it, is taken from the air while the 

 phosphoric acid and potash must necessarily come from the soil, 

 and the quantities of these two fertilizing ingredients removed 

 by the cowpea hay and the crops of wheat represent the quanti- 

 ties removed from the soil. If deep plowing, the subsoiling 

 effects of cowpea roots, weathering and other operating agencies 

 do not render available quantities of phosphoric acid and potash 

 proportionate to the quantity renioved by the harvested crops, 

 the soil will become gradually exhausted, notwithstanding the 

 cowpeas, and it will become necessary to resort to direct appli- 

 cations of phosphoric acid or potash or both. Just how many 

 years would elapse before this would become necessary will of 



prnirc;e '^PpPtld npOTl thc C'^ipp'^'^i^i^n <^f ^he <;rvil and it«; p^'^f and 



present treatment, and can be determined only upon the merit 



or demerit of each case. 



The Time to Plow Under Cowpea Vines and Stubble. 



The plowing under cowpea vines or cowpea stubble, like any 

 other farm operation or practice, may be rightly or wrongly 

 done. In utilizing- a crop of cowpeas for their fertilizing effects, 

 there are so many things that should be taken into careful con- 

 sideration that each case must be adjudged by itself. In begin- 

 ning the discussion of this subject the writer wishes it to be 

 understood that he does not advocate plowing under cowpea 

 vines except in special cases and in following thoroughly consid- 

 ered and well-matured plans. On a well-regulated farm and 

 under ordinary circumstances there is about as much common 

 sense in plowing under cowpeas ready for the mower as there 

 is in plowing in timothy, com, wheat or cotton, instead of har- 

 vesting them for market or for feed, as the case may be. The 

 greatest error in Southern farming is to be found in the small 

 number and inferior quality of the animals kept. There is not 



nnp- in fifty rntfnn hplf fnrmo, tViat h^<s. '^fQ. rrnnplprnpnt of live 



stock. On the other hand, under the existing and peculiar con- 

 ditions of many farms it is more expedient to use a crop of cow- 



