September 1908.) 



251 



Miscellaneous Products, 



is not to touch the vines at all until alter 

 the rain. It is a mistake to be in a hurry 

 about handling after wet weather. If 

 the vines are fairly mature before 

 cutting, a wet spell during hay-making, 

 unless prolonged, is not a very serious 

 matter. If, however, the vines are im- 

 mature when cut, great difficulty is 

 always experienced in curing the hay in 

 unfavorable weather. 



Several special devices are more or 

 less used in curing cowpea hay. The 

 most common of these is a pole, usually 

 with cross-pieces nailed at right angles, 

 around which the vines are cocked. 

 Triangular pyramids from 2 to 3 feet 

 high, built of poles with cross-pieces 

 nailed on to hold them together, are 

 used to a small extent in the same way. 

 The object of these devices is to get air 

 into the vines by keeping them from 

 becoming tightly packed together and 

 to have an air space in the centre of the 

 cock. Canvas or other covers, or hay 

 caps, to protect the cocks during rainy 

 weather, also have a limited use. These 

 devices give excellent results in curing 

 cowpeas, but on account of the increased 

 cost and labour they entail are not in 

 general use. A good and comparatively 

 cheap hay cap would find a ready market 

 and could be sold in large numbers. It 

 would be a great help in cowpea hay 

 making. 



Cowpeas in Mixtures. 

 While cowpeas can be satisfactorily 

 grown alone for hay, it is a much better 

 practice as a rule to grow them in mix- 

 tures. The most widely used crop for 

 this purpose is sorghum. This includes 

 both the sweet sorghums and the kafirs. 

 The sorghum serves to support the 

 cowpea vines, and its use usually results 

 in increasing the yield of hay consider- 

 ably. An additional important advan- 

 tage is that the hay is more easily cured, 

 as the sorghum prevents the matting 

 together of the cowpea plants. Corn is 

 also vised very extensively in mixture 

 with cowpeas, but only to a small 

 extent for hay purposes. The two are 

 grown together very satisfactorily in 

 cultivated rows. Other crops that have 

 been used to grow in mixture with 

 cowpeas are millet, soy beans, and 

 Jonnson grass. 



Cowpeas and Sorghum-— In the Pied- 

 mont region of the South a large per- 

 centage of the cowpeas planted for hay 

 is in mixture with sorghum, and the 

 practice should spread rapidly, as this 

 mixed hay is very nearly a complete 

 ration and is relished by all farm stock. 

 The mixture has given excellent satis- 

 faction on the Arlington Experimental 

 Farm, near Washington, D. C. The 



variety of sweet sorghum most used is 

 the Amber, as it is not as coarse as the 

 others, and hence cures more rapidly. 

 The seeding is best done with a grain 

 drill on well-prepared land, the two 

 kinds of seed being well mixed and sown 

 at the same time. The best rate is one 

 bushel of good seed of cowpeas to one-half 

 bushel of sorghum to the acre. If a 

 grain drill is not available for seeding, 

 the cowpea seed should be disked or 

 ploughed in, and the sorghum seed should 

 then be sown while the land is rough 

 and covered with a drag harrow. The 

 Whippoorwill, Iron, Unknown, and Clay 

 cowpeas require about the same time as 

 sorghum to mature, and therefore should 

 be used instead of the early varieties. 

 In general, the planting may be done 

 from June 1 to July 15. 



Growing cowpeas and sorghum to- 

 gether in cultivated rows gives excellent 

 results. They should be planted together 

 in rows 2\ to 3£ feet apart, three pecks of 

 cowpea seed and about one-third of a 

 bushel of sorghum seed being used to the 

 acre. The Sumac and the Orange varie- 

 ties are fully as good as the Amber 

 sorghum for this use, as they grow larger 

 and stronger plants. The harvesting is 

 most satisfactorily done with a mower. 



Cowpeas and Corn. — Cowpeas are most 

 widely used at present for growing with 

 corn. When grown in this way a farmer 

 secures a crop of corn, sufficient cowpea 

 seed for use the next season, and either 

 a hay crop or a certain amount of graz- 

 ing for his stock. The cowpea is an 

 excellent plant to grow with corn for 

 ensilage, and is being used quite exten- 

 sively for this purpose on many dairy 

 farms, especially in the northern part of 

 the cowpea region. When planted in 

 the corn-field it is usually at the last cul- 

 tivation of that crop. The quantity of 

 seed used to the acre ranges from half a 

 bushel or less to two bushels, depending 

 largely on whether the planting is broad, 

 cast or in rows close to the corn. Gen- 

 erally the best results are obtained by 

 the use of about three pecks of seed and 

 planting near the rows of corn, prefer- 

 ably with a corn, cotton or other planter, 

 immediately after the last cultivation 

 of the corn. Usually the peas are 

 allowed to ripen a fair percentage of 

 pods, which are gathered for next year's 

 seed, and the vines are then pastured. 



In the sugar-cane districts of Louisiana 

 and in parts of Mississippi and Alabama 

 the cowpeas are made into hay instead 

 of being pastured after the corn has been 

 gathered. This is a very good practice 

 and is becoming general. The work is 

 very satisfactorily done with a strong 

 wooden-toothed rake, which pulls the 



