The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-04-12

| Mlcnlgan Tor Wlde-
spread Interest Among North
ern Agriculturists in the Field
or Cow-pea for a Green Manure
Their Great Value as an I'M
proven Of the Soil, &c.
Prof. W. F. Massey in Progressive South. !
Repeated experiments have demon
strated the fact that late crop Irish
potatoes, as grown in South, not only
furnish the best seed for planting for
the early crop at home, but Northern
market gardeners are realizing that
they are superior for early crops in the
North. Many gardeners near the
Northern cities now buy Southern
grown potatoes regularly for planting,
and find them better for this purpose
than those from the far North Dur
+ ing the winter potatoes have been
/ shipped from North Carolina as far
North as Michigan for planting this
spring. This Is a complete reversal
OF the old practice, when Southern
/ growers thought it essential to get
Northern grown seed for planting, and
in recent years all the dealers in
| Northern seed potatoes report an i'm
mense falling off in their trade South
| ward.
The success attending the use of our
late crop of potatoes for seed opens
up new line Of effort for cur South
ern farmers, which they should not be
slow to take advantage OF, as the de-
mand for these potatoes is beginning
and will extend as their superiority
becomes known in other sections.
This late potato crop is also advanta-
geous in another respect, because ihe
best preparation for them is a crop of
cow-peas mown for hay in August, and
the stubbe at once prepared for the
potato crop. Thus we get valuable
forage crop and at the same time i'm
prove the land for the potatoes, and
leave the soil in the best condition for
cotton the following year.
Another crop which is becoming of
increased importance is the Southern
field or cow-pea. There is wide
spread interest in this plant at the
North for green manure crop. Far
mers away up on the great lakes have
tried them, and report favorably.
Only this week we had letter from a
large farmer in Northern Illinois ask
ing at what price he could buy here
Ioo or more bushels of seed peas. He
stated that he had tried them there
for two years and finds them very
valuable for cow hay and for pasture,
and as soil lmprover equal to clover.
But in that latitude, farmers must de-
pend upon the South for seed since
the crop fails to ripen seed there.
In experiments made last year at
Cornell IN. W Experiment Station
two or three varieties of these peas
from North Carolina ripened seed,
while those from Louisiana failed to
ripen. The New York farmers are
therefore advised to get seed from the
Northern belt of the South Few if
any of these peas will ripen upon the
shores of Lake Erie and westward, vet
in this region dairymen are finding
them of great value for feed and as a
means of manuring their hard, clayey
soil and adding needed fertility. Our
own farmers are appreciating their
value for Improvement more and more
| atr la1I 60
Of our Piedmont counties of North
Carolina told me some time ago that
formerly several car loads of peas were
shipped to Louisiana every spring, but
now, while many more are being
grown there, not SO many are shipped
because the home demand is such that
1t pays better to sell at home. The
sugar planters OF Louisiana are large
buyers of peas for geen manurng on
their sugar lands. At the prices these
peas sell for seed it ought TO pay we'll
to grow and cultivate them in rows
especially for seed. With our efficient
machines for growing the crop and
more rapid methods of threshng and
cleaning, this crop ought to pay we'll.
One of our wide awake farmers in
Eastern North Carolina advertised the
seed for sale in the Northern papers
last spring, and will be on hand again
this season with a big crop. Those
who grow for Northern planting should
plant only the black and the clay
peas, since these have been shown to
be best for the North. Hundreds of
bushels of these peas were shipped
North from Raleigh last spring, and
from all over the North we get reports
testlfying to their value. The demand
for the seed is sure to increase there
and at home. There is not tenth,
no not hundreth part of peas scwn
in the South that should be sown.
But our farmers are fast waking up to
their value. 1t is one great advantage
that Just in those sections where clover
! will not thrive the field pea is most at
home. No farmer in the coast plain
of the South has any reason to regret
t that clover does not thrive in his soil
and climate, for the Southern pea will
do for him more than clover does fol
the Northern farmer and do it in hall
the time. Aside from their greal
5 value as a soil improver, and aside
from the profit that may be made BY
growing these peas for seed, they have
another and special value as the cheap
est and best of hog pastures, and the,
furnish material for hay and ensllage
that has no superior as forage fol
milch COWS. Edgecombe county, n
c.. once devoted exclusively to cotton