Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-11-28
AGRICULTUR
Do Cow Peas Planted Among
Corn Decrease the Yield?
G. H. Turner in Practical Farmer.

L. briggs, of Walker, Mo-; also
Prof. Massey;s comments thereon.
We have raised COW peas for the
past twenty-four years. In one in
stance our corn was seriously dam
aged and the. yield sensibly de-
creased by peas, but this decrease
in the yield, though plainly attrib-
utable to the peas, was altogether
owing to the improper way in
which said peas were planted.
III that instance corn and peas
were planted alternately in the
same drill crows four feet apart,
corn three feet, single stalks in
drill, with a hill of peas between
each two hills of corn); the peas
grew luxuriantly and made fine
yield, but they so sapped the corn
that it was almost a failure. We
will now state little experience
we gained in 1875. A neighbor of
ours planted piece of rich creek
bottom land IN corn Checked four
feet apart each way).
After the corn came up the land
was laid off between the rows Of
corn and peas (black peas) were
planted at each intersection Of the
rows. Both corn and peas throve
finely until earring time; at that
time (July) the corn was in heavy
roasting ear, the peas of normal
growth and blooming. 1t COM
menced raining, and rained off and
on for week; at the end of that
time it finished off with wind
which, owing to the ground being
saturated with water, and the corn
being extra heavy and fine, leveled
the corn until it looked as if a
roller had passed over it.
The corn made a futile effort to
straighten itself up again, but the
peas just spread themselves until
the corn, well, it simply wasn't
nowhere" ole could not have told
that corn had ever been planted
there that year. Not single blade
s5eh fs sfzf fa5ssi, z6d f5Ssf H5s grain "a of
corn was gathered where the pros
poets had been good for thirty
bushels to the acre.
We have often seen the final
yield of corn seriously abridged by
planting peas among (more espe-
cially in the drill with the corn.
Another popular plan of sowing
peas, but a plan We cannot too
strongly condemn, is that of strew-
ing them in the middles and cover
ing them by the pillow at laying-by
time. This plan may not iujure
tie corn, but it is death to the
peas.
While the soil possessed its vir-
gin freshness peas would mature
fine crop planted this way, but the
time for sighting them in any such
a manner is past; slipshod meth
DDS must now be abandoned. We
have tried raising peas by all the
various methods in vogue, and out
side of devoting ground exclusively
% them, giving them the same cul- ;
;ivation as any other hoed crop, !
lave found the following plan for :
both corn and peas the best:
Plant corn in rows four and a
lalf or five feet apart. Plant peas =
n center between the rows of corn; :,
n cultivating the corn the peas
et one good working, which we ;.
ind actually essential to best re- = =
ults. Here (in latitude 80 or 33 "
egrees) we make it a rule to plant = :,
eas each week in May AS long y
s the land is planted to corn we
ractice this sort of rotation: ~
lanting corn on the old pea row r r
this to give the corn the benefit J,
the nitrogen stored up by the " y
eas), and peas on the old corn ~
Nv.
We are actually SO enthused on ", '"
ae "Pea as a Fertilizer" question, -. ~.
lat we honestly believe the fer ~
lity of land may be indefinitely ~
ept up (if not actually increased) W.
rigid adherence to this short -
'tation. Be that as it may, of one a. -.
ing we are assured, viz: That ..
ere this practice kept up, the r.
ost costly element of fertility the ~
rmer has to buy would not have
be purchased, would be raised ch
home, and would enable the all
rmer TO the more easily purchase Ve
n now ooeb 60, ,l>o xa1.Sl ON