18 



AGRICULTURAL VARIETIES OF THE COWPEA, ETC. 



It is quite possible that marked differences in earliness, prolific- 

 ness, etc., may be developed in any variety by selection either natural 

 or artificial, but no good evidence of any such change has yet been 

 shown where selection does not enter. It is doubtful, indeed, how 

 much selection alone will do toward improving the cowpea. But 

 little work has been done along this line so far, because hybridizing 

 has seemed to offer better promise. 



It must not be assumed from the above discussion that a variety 

 should be of equal value regardless of soil or climate. On the 

 contrary, it is perfectly certain that varieties that are valuable in 

 certain parts of the country are of distinctly less value elsewhere. 

 For example, the Brabham cowpea, a new variety, has proved its 

 high value in the sandy lands of South Carolina, Georgia, and 

 Florida, in the semiarid lands of the Texas Panhandle, and elsewhere. 

 Farther north it is unreliable, tending to go largely to vine. This 

 was also the experience with it on the rich muck lands near Stock- 

 ton, Cal. At Arlington Farm it produced very little seed in 1908, 

 a normal season as to rainfall, while in 1909, an abnormally dry 

 season, it was at least equal to the best of over 100 varieties grown, 

 A study of the data accumulated regarding this variety points to 

 the conclusion that it has too great vegetative vigor under favorable 

 conditions to seed heavily and that the retarding effects of com- 

 paratively poor soil or of light rainfall are necessar}^ to make it 

 highly productive of fruit. On the other hand, it is well to remem- 

 ber that such well-known varieties as the TVhippoorwill and New 

 Era are grown with satisfaction over a wide area with many different 

 soils and climates. 



In apparent contrast to the above conclusions, Newman 1 records 

 that different lots of seed of TVhippoorwill, Clay, Unknown, Black- 

 Red Ripper, New Era, and Blackeye gave greatly different results as 

 regards yield of hay when planted side by side. Thus different lots 

 of Whippoorwill varied in yield per acre from 1,300 to 2,200 pounds ; 

 Clay, 3,800 to 8,700; Unknown, 3,300 to 7,000; Red Ripper, 2,300 to 

 4,600; New Era, 700 to 1,900; Blackeye, 700 to 4,000. Prof. Newman 

 hazards the suggestion that these wide variations in yield are — 



probably due, in part at least, to the greater or less adaptability of the soil or 

 climate, or both, where the tests were made as compared with the soil and 

 climate where the seed was grown. Another cause for the variation may be 

 due to the development of strains of the different varieties from their having 

 been grown in certain localities for a number of years. 



The point is one of importance and needs to receive further atten- 

 tion. The testing work at Arlington has in no case, where the identity 



1 Bulletin 80, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, p. 73. 



229 



