COW PEAS (eananc) 
Improve VVorn-out Soils. Make Good Land More Productive. Valuable for Pasture, 
Green Forage or Ensilage 
Cow Peas are the great leguminous crop of our Southern states, where they play the same important 
role in rotation farming that Clovers and Canada Peas do in the North 
BLACK-EYED COW PEAS. 
sort. 
NEW ERA COW PEAS. 
A new, extra early variety, earlier than 
A popular and productive early | 
$4.25 per bushel of 60 Ibs.; 10-bushel lots, $4.00 per bushel. 
The early varieties of Cow Peas are also quite ex- 
tensively and successfully grown for forage and soiling 
as far north as Massachusetts, but so far north the 
crop may not ripen seeds. Cow Peas are nitrogen- 
gathering legumes, growing more like Beans than Peas, 
producing enormous crops of bushy vines and yielding 
in warm climates a bountiful crop of edible Peas. As 
a soil renovator and enricher, Cow Peas are very valu- 
able. The large root development ramifies over large 
areas, going down deeply in search of moisture and 
food thus improving the goil’s porosity and adding 
humus when the roots decay. A crop of Cow Peas 
collects nitrogen from the air in large quantities and 
‘fixes it in the soil, thus adding this expensive element 
of fertilizers to the land without cost, and leaving it 
richer and in splendid condition for the future crop. 
It has been fully demonstrated at a number of experi- 
ment stations that a crop of Cow Peas plowed under, 
will add 110 Ibs. of nitrogen per acre to the soil, having 
an actual cash value of $14.00 per acre. In addition 
to that the Cow Pea crop renders available as food for 
succeeding crops, 24 Ibs. of phosphoric acid and 100 Ibs. 
of potash peracre. All crops grown after Cow Peas do 
well. Moreover, the plants shade the soil, keeping it in 
best condition for rapid nitrification. The shading 
of the soil crowds out all weeds; thus Cow Peas serve 
as a cleansing crop on weedy land. Cow Peas grow on 
all soils from the stiffest clays to porous sands, barren 
uplands and alluvial bottoms. It stands the heat 
and sunshine of southern summers and its rapid 
growth there enables two crops to be grown in the same 
land in one year. The feeding value of Cow Peas is 
high, whether as green forage, cured hay or silage, being 
especially rich in blood, bone and muscle-forming 
material. Hogs do well pastured on Cow Peas; an 
acre of ripening Peas will feed and fatten 15 to 20 
young hogs; sheep and cattle may also be fed on the 
green fodder cut and wilted a little, otherwise they eat 
it so ravenously, they are liable to bloat. For green 
manuring clay land, the crop should be turned under 
green. On sandy soil, already too light, the vines 
should decay on the surface and then be turned under. 
! Sow 2 bushels per acre. (See cut.) 
the Black Eye, the quickest growing of any of the Cow Peas, 
maturing in about 60 days, specially adapted for planting North. 
Yields well. 
‘$3.75 per bushel of 60 lbs.; 10-bushel lots, $3.55 per bushel. 
VELVET BEAN s(n) 
VELVET BEAN (Mucuna utilis). A rank growing leguminous 
vine, attaining a length of 10 to 40 feet and densely covering the 
ground. As a green manuring and forage crop it is of great value 
in the South and in tropical countries. No other forage crop makes 
such enormous growth in such a short time. On the sandy lands 
of Florida it averages 5,000 pounds of cured forage per acre, while 
' on richer soils in Alabama the weight is often over 8,000 pounds 
per acre. The crop may be used as green forage, pastured or cured 
into hay, for which purpose it should be cut when in full flower 
or before the pods get large. The feeding value is high, as nutritious 
as Cow Peas, or Clover. Cattle and hogs thrive especially well on it. 
As a soil enricher the Velvet Bean crop is not surpassed. It gathers 
nitrogen from the atmosphere, and when the crop—or at least the 
roots and stubble—is turned under, this expensive element in fer- 
tilizers is added to the soil, which with the humus added from the 
decayed crop, increases the fertility of the land, putting it in fine 
condition for the succeeding crop. No fertilizer containing nitrogen 
need be used to grow Velvet Beans, but if the soil is poor an appli- 
cation of about 250 pounds of acid phosphate and 100 pounds o% 
muriate of potash per acre would be beneficial. Plant the seed a 
few inches apart in rows 4 feet apart, requiring about 1 bushel of 
seed per acre. $2.00 per peck, $6.00 bushel of 60 lbs. 
We advice ‘t* subjects in connection with preparation and maintenance of grass lands, forage crops, soiling, rotation, silos, etc. 
