The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-09-11
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE COW PEA.


Value Of the Southern Legume a. . Nitro
gen Gatherer.
During the past four months we have
traversed quite considerable portion
of the states of Alabama, Georgia,
North and South Carolina and Tennes-
see. We have visited truck farmers
fruit growers, cotton planters, nursery
men, stock raisers, and even rice farm
ers, in the above named states, and
more especially that portion of them
that might justly be termed "live,"
wide awake" and progressive" men
who, as agriculturists, have made for
themselves national and at the same
time very enviable reputation, as, for
instance, q. w. Truit and j. c. Sims, of
Troupe county, Ca, both of these gen.
tlemen having harvested upwards of
four bales of cotton from the single acre
in a single season, and this is not on a
single acre. but on five-acre patches.
Capt q. j. Drake, Of Marlboro county,
s. c., who harvested IS bushels of corn
from the single acre in a single season,
and many others too numerous to mem
ton who have made themselves famous
along their individual lines.
We mention this to show that we
have gained quite large fund of valu-
able practical information from our
brother planters" of the sunny south.
We have learned, among other
things, that the southern pea, or COW
pea, however good it may be as mi
trogen gatherer," is by no means equal
las source Of nitrogen, or as means
OF furnishing hungry plant with nj
tfogen in quick-acting and readily
available form to any of the
heterogeneous manures or fertilizers
that are to be found on the
ordinary farm or purchased in the
market, and more especially is this
the case with all light. loose, sandy
Soils We believe that we have been
affected with the "pea craze" quite as
badly as anyone else; in fact, we
haven't got over it yet, but we try very
hard not to expect more of them than
they are capable of accomplishing.
Peas furnish neither potash nor phos-
phoric acid; yet, because they extract
from the surface soil and pump up from
the subsoil beneath considerable guam
titles of these manurial substances,
they are often given credit for the full
amount OF both. as though they had en-
riched the soil to that extent, while the
fact is Gf the vines are removed from
the soil in the form of hay) that they
have actually impoverished the soil to
thatextent. Peas are greedy consumers
OF both potash and phosphoric acid, and
these unjust be furnished to them in
liberal quantities never less than 200
pounds of acid phosphate and 100
pounds of muriate of potash per acre,
or its equivalent in kainit. while double
that amount may be used with mani
fest advantage) if an actual increase in
fertility is the object in view in plant
ing them. Peas attract their nitrogen
from the atmosphere and store it up in
the soil in the form of organic" nitro
gen, and although we are well satisfied
in our own mind that we have, in times
past, gained an increase of 10, Is and
30 bushels of corn per acre from
single crop of cow peas turned under,
we are just as well satisfied that nitro
gen obtained from any other source
las nitrate of soda, cotton-seed meal.
crushed cotton seed, rotten cotton
seed, stable manure, ETC., etc.) will
act quicker and give more satisfac-
tory as well as more profitable results
than II the cow peas had been turned
under. We expect to make a liberal
planting Of peas every succeeding year,
first, as an economical feed crop for
hogs and live stock of all kinds; second.
to keep up good supply of organic
matter of ''humus" in the soil, and,
third. as source of nitrogen, the COM
parative value being, in our opinion, in
the order named.
We paid visit recently TO the ex-
perimental farm at Southern Pines, N.
c., and we would advise agriculturists |
everywhere, more especially those of |
them engaged in raising either fruits |
or vegetables for market, and who are
located anywhere within the bounds of |
the long leaf pine belt, and whose soil |
is light, loose, sandy and comparatively
poor, to thoroughly familiarize them
selves with its workings and with |
what is being done there for their espe-
cial benefit. We took particular notice
OF the fact that nitrogen is badly need
ed in this soil, and that wherever nj
trogen has been applied in the form of
nitrate of soda the various crops re-
sponded in no uncertain manner. The
same was equally true of potash in any
and all of its forms of phosphoric acid |
and OF lime; but in every single in
stance where COW peas were turned un-
der and relied upon as a source of nj
trogen, the crop, no matter of what
kind. was invariably and positively in
ferior.
Theorize over this as we way, the
fact remains that organic nitrogen is
slower in It's action and decidedly less
satisfactory, as far as either immediate
or final results are concerned than ora |