Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-05-24

grows more upright than any other,
and is more easily turned under with
the pillow or cut with the scythe, but it
does not incline so much to run to vine
or shade the ground so completely as
either the clay, red or black pea.
There are certain soils and sections
of country throughout the cotton States
where red clover can be grown to great
perfection and advantage, but there is
perhaps no soil in said section but what
will produce the field pea proftably,
whether for seed, forage or manure.
The COW pea is to the South what
red clover is to the North. Analysis
and experience show that for all the
purposes for which red clover Is grown,
the COW pea will answer the same pur-
pose.
Better hay was never known than
we'll cured pea vines, moved at the
proper time. The yield of hay is large.
The pea will grow and make a fair
yield upon land almost too poor to
sprout clover seed.
In speaking of land too washed and
Worn for any agricultural crop, we often
hear the expression, "too poor to sprout
peas" 1t matters not how impover>
lshed certain piece of land may be, a
very limited amount of barnyard ma
nure will insure crop of COW peas.
Three or four crops of vines turned I'M
der for manure, will very rapidly bring
the land up to such degree Of fertili-
ty as to insure a fair crop of oats, or
some other crop.
One reason why I like the heavy
running varieties is, that the vines lie
so close to the ground that it is almost
impossible for the mower to cut them
clean, and thus these vines that are left
behind furnish an excellent fertilizer
with the deep tap roots that decay in
the ground) for almost any farm crop
to succeed the peas. These pea roots
penetrating to such great depth in
the soil and permeating the land in
every direction, loosen it up more per-
fectly than all the plows and harrows
combined. l have some black prairie
hammock land that is cold, wet and
craw6shy. For several years l could
never get stand of corn. Year before
last, after failing to get a stand, and as
the season was far advanced, plowed
up the partial stand of corn and sowed
down the red chowder pea. The yield
of vines was immense, and | saved I
do not think less than three tons of SUI
perior hay per acre, besides leaving a
goodly number on the ground to decay.
The next year this was the loosest soil
had on the place it was ready for
the pillow before any other (it had be-
fore this been too wet and sticky to
pillow until very late in the season. and
was in condition 10 receive almost
any crop. The land seemed to be
transformed into different character
of soil. Never have I known land to
pulverize so well under the pillow. l
planted small portion of the land to
early rose potatoes "a small patch for a
trial, and the yield was not only very
large, but the potatoes were very
smooth and uniform-quite q contrast
to those raised on two or three other
patches which were seemingly better
suited to this crop. A part of the land
was sOwed to early peas (English) with
out breaking. A furrow was simply
run with bull tongue, the peas dropped
and covered by running a Thomas
smoothing harrow crosswise over the
burrows. The peas came mp well, were
hoed once, plowed once, and the yield
was heavy.
This experiment with COW peas on
the land mentioned astonished me.
find by experience that wherever have
had COW peas planted q have always
cut the vines for hay,) the ground was
invariably In fine fix for any crop that
followed, and that same crop largely
benefited by the pea crop which pre-