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AGRICULTURAL VARIETIES OF THE COWPEA, ETC. 



Southern Pea, or 4 Cornfield Pea * * ? (Transactions of the Virginia 

 State Agricultural Society. 1853. vol. 1. p. 172). This writer says 

 the varieties of Cornfield pea are very numerous, and if all the 

 names which could be collected in the country were written their 

 number would fill several pa-ges, because the same pea in different 

 sections goes by different names. Edmonston gives brief agricultural 

 descriptions of seven varieties, as follows: The Shinney pea: the 

 Clay or Gray pea : the Red, Tory, or Bass pea : the Blackeye pea : the 

 Calivant : the Three Crop pea or Tribus pea : and the Black pea. 



Edmund Ruffin, in 1855, published a most excellent account of the 

 cowpea (Essays and Xotes on Agriculture. ** The Southern Pea." pp. 

 344-407). He gives good descriptions of eight varieties of cowpeas. 

 as follows: (1) The buff-colored pea, usually called either the " cow " 

 or "clay" pea; (2) the Bass (red) pea; (3) the blackeye pea; (4) 

 the early black pea: (5) the mottled or Shinney pea; (G) large 

 black or Tory (late) pea; (7) small black, late pea; (8) green- 

 e}'e white pea. Ruffin was evidently acquainted with other varieties, 

 as in another place he speaks of " sundry other white peas." He also 

 mentions crowder peas, describing clearly the differences between 

 the crowder form of seed and the kidney form of seed. He also says : 



Again, the same variety is known by several different names in different 

 localities. Thus, of the names " cow-pea " and " tory-pea " each has been used 

 for varieties of red, black, and buff color, and for several varieties of both 

 red and black peas. 



A writer in the American Agriculturist (1876, vol. 35, p. 139) 

 states that he grew and distinguished 20 varieties. He writes as 

 follows : 



We have classified our 20 varieties according to their color and markings 

 and make the following groups in each, naming the largest variety first. (1) 

 Seeds cream color, with a minute olive-green line at the eye: White Table 

 (also Mush and Dennis's Field), Lady. Six-Oaks Field. (2) Cream colored 

 with a brownish stain at the eye: Red-Hulled White. Sugar Crowder. White 

 Crowder (both nearly globular), Browneye. White Field. (3) The same, but 

 with a distinct black eye: White Crowder (different from the one above named), 

 Blackeyed White. (4) Drab, usually darker at the eye: Claybank. Joiner's 

 Long-Pod. (5) Yellowish brown, with a minute dark line at the eye: Yellow 

 Crowder, Yellow Cow. (6) Purplish-brown, or reddish-chocolate color, with 

 dark line at the eye: Red Ripper (also Tory). Breack. Red Cow. (7), Yellowish 

 or purplish brown, mottled with very dark brown or black, especially toward 

 the eye: Speckled Java (also Early Bush). Whippoorwill (also Speckled ditto, 

 and Shinney). (8) Jet black, with small white scar: Black Field. 



Since the establishment of the agricultural experiment stations in 

 1835 many of them have made collections of cowpea varieties and 

 issued publications concerning them. 



From the above it is evident that even as early as the middle of 

 the nineteenth century numerous varieties of cowpeas were known 



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