Edible Products. 1 



also gives a heavy dressing of nitrogen 

 to the soil, which benefits the following 

 crop, and even when the plants have 

 been cut for fodder, the remainder, when 

 ploughed tinder, is much more useful 

 than the dry stubble of any other crop. 

 Cow-peas should be sown as early in 

 spring as possible, but where there is 

 danger from hard frosts, sowings may 

 be delayed until later. They will 

 flourish in all parts of Victoria, from the 

 Murray to the sea, aud will succeed in 

 the poorest soils and the driest seasons. 

 In rich soils, they should be sown 2 feet 

 apart in the row, rows 3 feet apart. In 

 ordinary soils the plants may be closer 

 in the row, say 18 inches apart ; and in 

 poor soils 12 inches in the row, and 30 

 inches between rows. 



American farmers regard cow-peas 

 with much favour and grow them largely 

 for many uses, but green manure is the 

 main purpose. American cattle and 

 sheep thrive well upon the fodder, the 

 plant being rich in albuminoids and 

 carbohydrates. In the household, the 

 green pods are found to be equal to 

 French beans, while the dry peas are 

 used to replace haricot beans for table 

 use. Their long period of bearing— cow- 

 peas podding freely for three or four 

 months during the hottest summer- 

 should commend this plant to our 

 market-gardeners. For seed, cow-peas 

 are very profitable, yielding from 20 to 

 40 bushels per acre. The retail price 

 here, at present, is about ^0*. per 

 bushel, while field peas are about 4s. 6d., 

 with a similai yield of seed. This great 

 difference should give large profits to 

 growers of cow-peas for some consider- 

 able time. But, even were the price to 

 be reduced to that of ordinary peas, the 

 cow-pea would still be the more profit- 

 able crop to grow ; its superiority being 

 manifest from its not drying up after 

 its seed has been ripened, and by the 

 value of the second crop of material for 

 fodder or for manure ; material, perhaps, 

 of nearly equal money value to that 

 obtained for its previous crop of seed. 

 What greater inducements can Victorian 

 farmers require to make them give cow- 

 peas a trial ? 



Although this plant is called a pea, the 

 seed is shaped like a bean. Botanically, 

 it is closely allied to the Dolichos. It is 

 described under the name of Catiang 

 sinensis, synonym Vigna sinensis. It 

 has been in use for food purposes for a 

 thousand years or so ; it is the Chowlee 

 of India, the Tow Cok of China, the 

 Caffre bean of the Cape, and now the 

 Cow-pea of the United States. There 

 are several varieties, with seeds varying 

 widely in shape and colour, white, grey, 

 brown, and black, with many inter- 



I [February, 1909* 



mediate shades and markings. It is one 

 of those tropical plants, like maize, 

 which grow well in cool climates and 

 ripen their seeds freely. 



I am not aware that any extended 

 attention has been directed by scientists 

 to changes of colour in seeds growing 

 under varying conditions, but the 

 changed colours under the present tests 

 are too remarkable to be passed over. 

 All peas produced from dark-brown and 

 from reddish seed have come white ; 

 there is not ono dark seed in the produce 

 from either Iron or Wonderful. In New 

 Era, the brown has disappeared, the 

 produce showing a rather pleasing shade 

 of grey ; Whip-poor- Will, a dark seed, 

 has produced buff-coloured peas. As 

 it is the red colour which has vanished, 

 the change may possibly be due to 

 the absence of iron from the soil. 

 Cheltenham soil is almost entirely 

 composed of a silicious sand containing 

 no iron ; but, as most manures contain 

 some iron, the disappearance of red from 

 the colouring of all these peas seems to 

 me to indicate clearly the extreme 

 poverty of the particular soil in which 

 they were grown. It will be interesting 

 to experimeut this season with appli- 

 cations of iron sulphate in different 

 proportions. \.t any rate, present 

 results are so striking that they should 

 be worth placing on record, not only 

 because they show the impoverished 

 condition of the soil, but also because 

 they go to prove, incontestably, that 

 cow-peas can be depended upon to 

 produce fair crops in poverished and 

 poor soils, even in very dry summers. I 

 propose to continue tests this year, 

 adding three other varieties, and sowing 

 a month earlier than last season. — 

 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria, 10th 

 November, 1908, Vol. VI. Pt. II. 



COW-PEAS, SOY-BEANS, VELVET 

 BEANS. 



With the exception of lucerne, we are 

 unable in this climate to grow any per- 

 manent leguminous crop as a change of 

 feed for pigs. 



In mixed farming the value of cover 

 crops in replacing the fallow is now 

 being generally conceded. It is neces- 

 sary to differentiate from those used as 

 catch crops and for green manuring. 



Cover crops check evaporation, pre- 

 vent the soil baking, also the loss of 

 plant-food by excessive rainfall in wash- 

 ing the soil or leaching and they afford 

 green, succulent food for stock. 



Plants belonging to two groups are 

 available for this purpose. The first are 



