1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
739 
EXPERIENCE WITH COW PEAS. 
Their Use in Central Ohio. 
During the season of 1900 I had six acres of Black 
cow peas, put on ground that had been grained for 
several years, wishing to keep up its fertility, and to 
learn whether the cow pea would thrive and mature 
in central northern Ohio. They were drilled in with 
an ordinary corn drill three feet 10 inches apart; 
closer row.3 might have done as well or better, culti¬ 
vated several times during the season. At first they 
grew slowly, but later, when drier and warmer, they 
seemed to thrive much better, and matured quite a 
crop of pods filled with peas, but not as great a crop 
as I had expected, being from two to eight pods where 
the bunches of blossoms set little stubs or stems for 
many more. They were quite tedious to gather (we 
may not have known how to do it to the best advan¬ 
tage), it being difficult to supply the requisite amount 
of help at this busy season. We came to the conclu¬ 
sion that the cost was more than the benefits derived, 
and concluded not to grow any more. 
In the Spring of 1901, on coming to the farm I found 
the tops had been gathered together (instead of being 
plowed down) with a view to burning them to get in 
early a seeding of oats. I stopped the burning, direct¬ 
ing their being hauled to the barnyard to be tramped 
in with the manure. On their getting there (there 
were 14 large loads of them) the cattle and hogs be¬ 
gan to eat them with avidity. Some were thrown to 
the sheep, and they, too, enjoyed them. It is needless 
to say that they were kept and fed as fodder, and not 
tramped in with the manure. We gathered and 
gleaned from this patch 63 bushels of heavy oats to 
the acre, while the general average of the county was 
not 30 bushels. Our average from 
about 100 acres was not so great. 
The ground was plowed for 
wheat last Summer, breaking up 
mellow and nice for a seed bed. 
I shall report on harvesting 
wheat whether there is any dif¬ 
ference in the yield from this 
part of the held. I did not find 
on the roots of the cow peas dur¬ 
ing their growth or afterward 
the nitrogen-gathering tubercles 
1 had hoped for. Had they been 
present would we not probably 
have a better yield of peas? The 
fine yield of oats will encourage 
our trying them again. I shall 
get the Whippoorwill cow pea 
the next time, as I understand it 
matures earlier. Q. w. g. 
Columbus, 0. 
R. N.-Y.—We have been care¬ 
ful not to advise northern farm¬ 
ers to attempt to make hay of 
the cow-pea vines. Such in¬ 
stances as the above show that 
stock will eat the vines, but they 
are hard to cure, and in our own 
practice we find it better to plow 
them all under for green ma¬ 
nure. The increase in the oat 
yield appears to be due to the 
cow peas, and had the vines all been plowed under 
the yield would have been larger yet. We think that 
the wheat also will show the effect of the cow-pea 
crop. By using a variety like New Era, another crop 
of cow peas could have been grown between the oats 
and the wheat, and if a small amount of fertilizer 
had been used with the peas the vines would have 
benefited the wheat nearly as muoh as a fair dressing 
of manure. In Delaware and States farther south this 
short rotation of cow peas between crops of small 
grain, with the fertilizer on the cow peas is very 
profitable. 
It is not unusual to find no warts or nodules 
on the roots oi cow peas when they are grown 
for the first time. That has been our experience, 
but invariably these nodules have appeared in in¬ 
creasing numbers, as year after year the crop con¬ 
tinued to be grown. The explanation of this is 
quite simple. At first the special bacteria which 
cause and occupy these nodules were few in 
number. They were brought to the soil on the cow- 
pea seed. The first year perhaps there were not 
enough of them to make a fair showing, but as other 
crops of cow peas were grown they multiplied and did 
their work. We have found that these nodules are 
more likely to form when the cow peas are grown in 
poor soil containing but little available nitrogen. 
Good Results in Michigan. 
Feeling under obligations to Tite R. N.-Y. for giv¬ 
ing me information on the growing of cow peas, I am 
glad to give my experience with them, hoping it may 
interest others. About the middle of June I sowed 
four acres of Whippoorwill peas; these were put in 
with a beet drill used by sugar-beet growers. The 
drill sows four rows 21 inches apart. I used about 12 
quarts of seed per acre. The land is thin and sandy, 
and the season with us was unusually hot and dry, 
but in spite of these unfavorable conditions the peas 
grew to an average height of perhaps 16 inches—about 
as large as I could turn under without trouble. They 
were cultivated three or four times with a weeder; 
this, with a few teeth taken out, covered the four 
rows sown by the drill, and made short work of culti¬ 
vation. The roots were well supplied with nitrogen 
tubercles; as well, 1 think, as clover grown under 
same conditions would have been. Part of the field 
received a light coat of manure, and the difference in 
the growth of the peas was most marked. This leads 
me to think that while they can rustle for a living on 
light soil, they appreciate a full meal as much as 
other crops. Some of the peas were cut and given to 
the horses green, but they utterly refused to eat them 
until forced by hunger, so I decided to stick to my 
original intention and turn them under as a fertilizer, 
but first we cut and cured a small load for hay, and 
this the contrary horses eat in preference to Timothy. 
Now when I refiect that I turned under what would 
make 16 tons of hay worth $12 per ton, 1 feel that I 
have a rather costly fertilizer. l. w. k. 
Benton Harbor, Mich. 
R. N.-Y.—That fertilizer did not cost much at any 
rate. Wait until you see what grows after it! 
NOTES FROM KANSAS. 
The creameries are having more cream than usual, 
on account of the good pasture, and the early-sown 
wheat will furnish rich yellow cream nearly all Win¬ 
ter. My 10 acres of Mammoth Soy beans and the 
enormous crop of evergreen hay secured from them 
has set many wild after them. 1 plowed up my flax 
stubble and sowed it to Siberian millet on August 
7, and October 7 it was dead ripe, and a good yield, 
being one of the greatest curiosities ever seen along 
the road by my place. I raised a bouncing crop of 
flax on the ground that was taken off on July 6 and 7, 
but it did not rain enough to plow and put in millet 
until August 4, when 1.76 inches of rain fell, and I put 
two big teams at work and had the millet all in Au¬ 
gust 7. I also sowed Mammoth clover with it, and the 
clover now shows green all over the field. I could 
have put the millet stuoble into wheat without plow¬ 
ing, and next year put the wheat stubble into millet 
again, then into wheat in early October, thus getting 
two crops each year. 
Our Government Year Book mentions Siberian mil¬ 
let but does not tell much about it. The seeds are 
very much larger than common millet seed, and make 
excellent poultry feed, being nearly one-half the size 
of pop corn kernels. It only takes 15 pounds of seed 
per acre, us each plant stools out the same as wheat, 
and the, chinch bugs have never yet been known to 
trouble it. It is my opinion that this plant and accli¬ 
mated Mammoth Soy beans will make a valuable ad¬ 
dition to tne larm crops in this climate. I have re¬ 
cently sold- five acres off the farm for a mammoth 
brick plant, and three railroads on my south line 
take 15 acres more, so I am forced to raise two crops 
each year in order to carry the usual amount of live 
stock. It has been a famous year for sheep. They 
never were known to thrive so 'well. I sold down my 
flock to only 14 ewes and one imported ram, and every 
one of them is a show sheep. I sold down my Short¬ 
horn herd of cows to four cows and three calves, and 
my purebre<i herd of Poland China hogs to 10 show 
sows and a splendid hoar. .t. c. n. 
Allen Co., Kan, 
AGRICULTURAL USE OF PLASTER. 
Why It Is No Longer Used. 
IN NE'W YORK STATE.—Ground rock containing 
a large per cent of sulphate of lime was formerly used 
quite extensively on land to increase productivity. 
Its chief office seems to be to oust or make available 
potash. When used alone it requires 400 pounds of 
water to dissolve one pound of gypsum; hence it 
should always be used in small quantities, from one- 
half bushel to two bushels per acre. Formerly, when 
the land was full of potash which was not readily 
available, the application of land plaster in many 
localities produced a marked increase in yield, espe¬ 
cially when applied to corn and clover, both of which 
use normally arge quantities of potash. After a time, 
lands which had been treated for several years with 
land plaster failed to show beneficial results from its 
use, and farmers remarked that the land had become 
“plaster sick.” The fact is, that land plaster seems 
to benefit the land least where the soil is deficient in 
potash, and most when potash is abundant but not 
available; hence, the practice has grown up among 
the most intelligent farmers of supplying the land 
with potash instead of treating it to land plaster for 
the purpose of ousting what little potash remains in 
the soil. I think this practice is a wise one, and that 
plaster is only profitable on lands which contain a 
large amount of “lazy potash.” In our experiments 
we have four'’ such lands in the black soils along the 
Mohawk River near Rome. So far as I can learn not 
one-tenth as much land plaster is now used in the 
country easily accessible to the plaster mills as form¬ 
erly, but I think the reason for such discontinuance 
of its use is self-evident. So with the New England 
States, but I am not so conver¬ 
sant with them as with New 
York, but I am led to believe 
that it is not used as much as 
formerly in any locality except 
in a few rare cases. We are still 
using small amounts of it in the 
cow and horse stables, with the 
hope of securing double benefit; 
first, conservation of the liquid 
manures and sanitation, and sec¬ 
ond, some possible benefit to the 
land when the manures are ap¬ 
plied. I. P. KOBERTS. 
Cornell Exp. Station. 
IN NEW JERSEY.—The use 
of plaster as a fertilizer is very 
limited as compared with its use 
25 to 30 years ago. The cause is 
probably due to the reduced cost 
of direct fertilizing materials, as 
well as a better understanding of 
what constitutes a direct ma¬ 
nure. In many cases, too, the 
effect of plaster is now not 
marked, because the benefit 
formerly derived is not observed, 
owing to the fact that the con¬ 
stituents readily set free by the 
plaster have been used up, and 
the plaster has no further effect. 
Plaster is indirect in its action, 
the increase in yield obtained from its use being due 
to the greater amount of potash that may be obtained 
by the plant, ratner than to any direct effect of the 
lime in the plaster. I may say, however, that a very 
considerable use is now being made of plaster as an 
absorbent in stables and manure cellars. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. e. b. voorhees. 
IN MASSACHUSETTS.—Plaster is much less gen¬ 
erally used than formerly. At the time, about 40 
years ago, when it was so largely used, the general 
problems connected with the nutrition of plants were 
much less generally understood than at present; it 
was not then clearly perceive'^’, that the productive¬ 
ness of soils depends in most cases upon the store of 
available nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash within 
the reach of the plant. With the recognition of this 
fact the use of materials furnishing these elements 
naturally increased rapidly, and the use of plaster and 
of lime decreased, as it was believed that our soils, 
as a rule, are capable of furnishing the elements con¬ 
tained in these in sufficient quantities. More recently 
it has been found that while there may be lime enough 
in the soil to serve as a source of direct supply to the 
plant, lime nevertheless serves numerous important 
uses, such as bringing the soil into oetter tilth, ren¬ 
dering dormant plant-food constituents available and 
neutralizing injurious acids, or in other words, sweet¬ 
ening soils; and accordingly the use of lime in some 
form is increasing. Plaster, it is true, may serve 
some of the purposes served by lime, but it is less ef¬ 
fective in all directions than lime, and accordingly 
the latter is generally preferred. Even this is not yet 
very generally employed. wm. b. brooks. 
Mass. .Agricultural College. 
STAR AND FEATHERED STAR PETUNIAS. Fig. 335. See Page 742. 
