Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1899-07-04
COwpEAs.
Al Rpor Mans Bank. Points
About Cultivation. IAN Excel
lent Forage Plant.

Cowpeas are f1ot,i as their name
naturally implies, peas, but are
reallYbeans, as indicated by the
shape of the seed, and as their
habit and growth also indicate.
How they got the name of peas is
mooted question. The United
States Agricultural Department
has issued a bulletin, reprinted
from their year book, for 1896, on
"cowpeas," in which it is stated
that cowpeas "belong to the genus
Vigna, the members of which are
largely represented in South Africa
and are closely related to thelablab,
lima and haricot beans of our gar
dens, as we'll as to numerous culti-
waited or half Wild garden sorts
common in tropical Asia and Amer
lea, but little known to us, There
are apparently many varieties OF
cowbeans, and as ''sports often
appear in their culture, new names
are constantly being added. This
variation from chosen types is con-
stantly going on. Hence enc va
riety may be cultivated in several
locations under different names.
The habit of growth varies some
what with location. A cowpea that
in the North grows in bush form,
will soon in the South become a
tr4itipg or running sort. in either
cassAhe plant, it seems, gradually
accommodates itself to the require
ments of the section or season
wherein it is growing.
"a field of cowpeas," says the
bulletin previously referred to,
'shas been very happily designated
the poor mans bank, for in common
NTH all its leguminous congeners
.the~feld pea, clovers, alfalfa and a
dozen others, this crop has the
power of increasing the fertility OF
the soil upon which it grows. The
jim in yield with lowpriced crops,
such as corn, cotton, cowpeas and
the grasses, using high grade and
costly fertilizers, is not commensu-
rate with the additional expense.
But every farmer, rich and poor
has over three thousand tons OF at
,mospheric nitrogen resting on every
acre of Of his farm, a certain guam
tity of which can be transformed
into available plant food every
time that he grows a crop of cow
PEAS. red clover or alfalfa.
ITO maintain the fertility OF any
soil the amount of humus or decay
ing organic matter in 1t must be
Kept up.
I. .sThe average soils need more
.humus. 1t can best be supplied by
sowing more grass, more perma-
nent pasture lands, more legumi-
nous crops. In a word, plant cow
peas. In relation to raising cow
peas forage:
"There is no forage plant better
adapted to the needs and condi-
tions of Southern agriculture than
this rank, free-growing annual, 1t
will thrive luxuriantly upon the
rich, swampy, cane lands OF Louis
lana. On the driest and most
sterile worn out uplands it serves
the admirable purpose of supplying
a larger quantity and better quail
ty of clover than any other bean or
clover. And whenever a crop OF
ct{wpeas has been taken off held
tfle> surface soil is left richer by a |
good many pounds of that most cost
ly plant foods, nitrogen. The roots
of the cowpea enter deeply into the
soil, opening and loosening it far
down for the benefit of the roots OF
Me succeeding crops of corn, cotton
4nd tobacco. 1t has been found by
experiment that the fertilizing
value of the roots and stubble of
tRs cowpeas are very considerable
8uslnot as great as that of the hay
removed from the field. The best
and most economical use of this
forage crop, is, then, to cut for hay,
feed to stock and return the stable
manure to the soil. Flowing the