October, 1908.J 



353 



Edible Products. 



A rotation of wheat or oats and cow- 

 peas is giving excellent results in parts 

 of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee. 

 Cowpeas are sown on the land immedi- 

 ately after the removal of the grain crop 

 and are utilized for hay or seed or for 

 pasture. Grain is sown again in the 

 fall, this making two crops a year from 

 the same land. In many instances land- 

 owners in Arkansas and Missouri have 

 allowed tenants the use of land free of 

 charge for producing a crop of cowpeas, 

 stipulating, however, that the land must 

 be well prepared. When the soil is 

 given good preparation before sowing 

 the cowpeas, it is not necessary to 

 plough in the autumn for the grain. 

 The fall preparation usually consists of 

 disking the cowpea stubble and sowing 

 the grain with a drill. Occasionally 

 the seeding is done with a disk drill 

 without any preliminary preparation. 

 The increase in yield of wheat due to the 

 cowpeas is generally given as from 3 

 to 5 bushels per acre. At the Missouri 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, an 

 increase in yield of 63 per cent, with 

 oats and 49 per cent, with wheat fol- 

 lowing cowpeas as a catch crop was 

 secured. The Arkansas Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station reports as the average 

 of a four years' test of wheat an in- 

 crease of 25 per cent, from ploughing 

 under cowpea stubble the first fall, 39 

 per cent, from plouging under cowpea 

 vines, and 42 per cent, where cowpeas 

 were grown each year as a catch crop 

 between the wheat crops, only the stub- 

 ble of the peas being ploughed under. 

 The increased yield in the latter case 

 amounted to 70 per cent, in the fourth 

 season, the yields having gradually 

 increased from year to year, in addi- 

 tion to producing a fair quantity of 

 very nutritious hay each season. 



On farms where more or less live 

 stock is produced, the following three- 

 year rotation is very popular and is a 

 good one : first year, cotton ; second year, 

 corn with cowpeas at last cultivation ; 

 third year, winter oats or wheat, with 

 a catch crop of cowpeas for hay or seed 

 after the grain has been removed. 



A few striking results due to the 

 growing of cowpeas are here noted :— 

 The Alabama Agricultural Experiment 

 Station reports a yield of oats follow- 

 ing cowpea vines ploughed under 

 247 per cent, larger than where German 

 millet was ploughed under. The Ark- 

 ansas station reports an increase 

 in yield of 63 per cent, on corn where 

 cowpeas were grazed the season before. 

 The Missouri station increased the yield 

 of corn 79 per cent, by growing cowpeas 

 on the land for two years before plant- 

 ing the corn. In yield of hay the 

 45 



Arkansas station secured an increase of 

 116 per cent, on oats following cowpeas 

 grazed the year before. The Alabama 

 station increased the yield of sorghum 

 hay2 - 01ton, or 55 per cents by plough- 

 ing under cowpea stubble on land where 

 sorghum was grown the previous year. 



These and many similar experiments 

 conculsively prove that it is much more 

 economical to use cowpeas for hay or 

 seed production in rotation with other 

 farm crops • than to use them for 

 green manuring. It is only in special 

 eases that it is advisable to utilize cow- • 

 peas as a green manure- On very poor 

 sandy land or on stiff, heavy clay soils in 

 bad mechanical condition a crop of cow- 

 peas ploughed under will give markedly 

 beneficial results. Cowpeas give very 

 good satisfaction as a cover crop in 

 orchards, for which they find a limited 

 use. In case of bad weather setting in 

 at harvest time it may be desirable to 

 utilize the crop for green manure, or to 

 pasture it if the land is of such a nature 

 as not to be seriously injured by the 

 trampling of stock. 



Varieties op Cowpeas. 

 There are about fifty varieties of.cow- 

 peas known, but only a few of the best 

 of these are extensively cultivated. The 

 varieties differ in such characters as 

 habit, size, earliness, prolificness, disease 

 resistance, and especially in the colour of 

 the seeds, which are either entirely 

 white, red, buff, black, or blue, or 

 variously blotched or speckled. The 

 varieties are all very constant in their 

 seed characters. The variation in vines, 

 however, is very marked, being influenc- 

 ed by the time of planting, the nature 

 of the season, and the locality where 

 grown. Early planting on a wet season 

 usually results in a large growth of 

 vines. Natural crosses between the 

 varieties occur under favouring con- 

 ditions, but they are far from common. 

 The use to be made of the crop by the 

 grower should determine largely which 

 variety to select. 



For table use the varieties with white 

 or nearly white seeds are preferred, as 

 they make a more attractive dish. The 

 habit of growth of the table peas is of 

 little direct concern, and, as a matter of 

 fact, none of them is very satisfactory 

 for forage purposes. The principal 

 varieties are the Blackeye, of which 

 there are several strains, the Brown-eye, 

 the Lady, and the Cream. These are 

 more properly considered vegetables. 

 Several of the coloured-seeded varieties 

 are also used as table peas. 



For forage purposes the most desir- 

 able varieties are those which have a 



