Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. 27i 



paratively level, and mature vines plov^ed under may safely be 

 followed by fall crops of grain, grasses or legumes. If green, 

 they cannot safely be followed by such crops and best results will 

 usually follow when they be permitted to remain until early 

 spring, if not to be grazed. When cowpeas are plowed in and 

 to be followed by another crop, the length of time that should 

 elapse before the sowing of the next crop should be determined 

 by the quantity and maturity of the vines when plowed in, and 

 the weather conditions prevailing between the plowing in of the 

 cowpea vines and the planting of the crop that is to follow. If 

 plowed under in the fall it is not infrequently the case that dry 

 weather follows the operation and the vines remain for some 

 weeks in an undecomposed condition, or only partly decomposed. 

 When rain does fall the vines are in much the same condition as 

 when plowed under green with the soil in good condition as re- 

 gards moisture. 



It is often a difficult task to plow under a heavy crop of 

 cowpeas and have the soil in good condition and the vines well 

 covered. This difficulty is particularly noticeable when Iron, 

 Clay, Red Ripper and such vining varieties are to be plowed 

 under, the tangled mass of vines making it in many cases im- 

 possible to do a good job with the tools ordinarily found upon 

 the farm. In plowing under such heavy crops the work may be 

 done quite satisfactory if the field is first gone over with an 

 ordinary stalkcutter, and in such manner that the furrows of the 

 turning plow will be parallel with the direction of the stalk cut- 

 ter. The blades of the stalk cutter cut the pea vines into strips 

 at right angles to the furrow and a rolling coulter attached to 

 the beam of the turning plow cuts the vines again, but at right 

 angles to the stalk cutter. The stalk cutter presses the vines near 

 the ground, cutting them one way while the coulter cuts them 

 again, enabling the plow not only to run more steadily, but to 

 completely cover the pea vines, insuring their more rapid and 

 uniform decomposition. 



Cowpeas Planted in Corn at Last Plowing. 



The very common practice of sowing cowpeas in corn when 

 the latter is given its last cultivation suggested the experiment 

 reported in Bulletin No. 70, page 104. This test shows that ''the 

 value of two successive crops of corn without cowpeas sown in 



