The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-07-15
FARMER AND PLANTER.
CONCERNING THE cow PEA.
ties, All of Which are USE
fuI ON the Farm.

Tor the COW. The name Cow pea is
not given to any variety of pea, but to
q large number of varieties. Some of
them do not run to vine, but like the
Whippoorwill peas, bear very heavy
crops of peas while they yield very lit
tie vine. These are generally earlier in
maturing, but you must not conclude
that they will not give good crops of
hay. As they do not run, they must be
sown much thicker if broadcasted, or
drilled heavier if planted in rows and
cultivated. If you wish to gather the
dried peas, then 1t is always better to
plant in drills. This can be done very
well with a corn and pea planter, or
by hand if you have no planter. One
or two light plowings with scrape, har-
row or cultivator is all the work usu-
ally needed. If planted early and grass
threatens damage, hoeing will pay.
very heavy and the picking easy.
IL. the object Is to make an early
hay crop, then sow the peas broadcast
on land that has been well broken and
cover with any good harrow. There is
danger of sowing too many peas per
acre, and thus causing the vines to be
too slender and the pods too small. We
have had better results from less than
q bushel than from above that guam
tity.
Remember that you are always look
ing to the improvement of the soil,
as well as to the yield of the crop. If
the plants have room, they shoot out
strong roots that go well down into
the earth, and at the same time shoot
up vigorous tops with large foliage,
which gather sunshine and carbonic
acid and nitrogen from the nir. Both
roots and tops work together to pro-
duce better results when they have
room. We have found three pecks per
acre very satisfactory.
AS you expect the peas to help you
make your soil more productive by
storing away. nitrogen Tor future
crops, you must help them DO this by
giving them plenty of the plant food
they need. Experience shows that
phosphoric acid and potash help the
pea crop, and the crops that follow.
IF you have plenty of home-raised
manure, then use that, but If not, acil
phosphate 1000 pounds and kainit COZ
pounds, mixed and used freely, say
500 pounds per acre, will greatly in
crease the growth of the peas and tie
roots. The roots help the soil. If the
soil has been well prepared, the roots
will go three or four feet deep. The
tops should be used for hay. They
are too valuable to be plowed in fo:.
manure.
Good peavine hay is generally worth
from SIS to SIS per ton. They arc
worth about $3.50 for fertilizing. Now
you are supposed to be farming to
make all you can. If so, you can net
afford to lose the $40 or S12 difference
on every ton of pea hay you grow. Be
sides, if you do not wish to soil the
hay, and haze cattle to feed it to, then
you get anNher profit in flesh, milk
and butter, and if you save the ma
nure carefully it is worth all of the ex
pense. If you have planted the bunch
peas, and promptly pick the ripe pods,
and Immediately cut the vines with
the unripe pods, you can often get
both a seed crop and hay crop.
There are SO many advantages in
growing peas that it is difficult to
speak of all of them in any one arti-
Gle. They build up the soil, build up
the cattle and build up the pocket
book at once. And better than all,
they build up the feelings of the farm
er, and help HIM to find happiness and
prosperity, where discomfort and de-
cline dwelt before.
So far, we have treated of peas used
as separate crop, but they can be
grown to great advantage with other
crops, particularly with corn. Very
many practice planting peas between
the hills of col n in the drills early in
the season, and cultivate them as they
do the corn. They claim that the peas
do not impure the corn. We do not
think this claim is true. While the
pea does not injure as much as weed
or u bunch of grass, yet it takes part
of the plant food from the corn. In
dry spells. il also divides the water
with the corn. We think this n bad
practice. They make the same claim
as the others. But in blowing there
is generally deep furrow made be-
tween the corn row and the pea row,
and this interferes with the growth of
the corn roots. Again in the hot,
dry spells, the peas win get the wa
ter the corn should have. Hence we
object to this plan.
Still others sow peas broadcast when
blowing the corn the last time. As
the corn roots have already extended
over all the ground, and the peas will
not grow much until the corn quits
growing, they do not injure the corn.
When the corr. has finished its growth,