The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-06-10
FARMER AND PLANTER.
RENOVATION OF TIE SOIL.
The Cow Pea the Cheapest Source of
Nitrogen Available by the
Southern Planter.

FOR many years the cow pea has
been used in the south to renovate the
soil by our best farmers. OF course
the story to them is old, but there are
80 many new farmers coming on each
year, and so many who have to have
line upon line and precept upon pre-
cept, that 1T seems necessary to tell
often of the benefits to be derived
from the cow pea.
Our northern farmers are waking up
to the advantage to he gained by
planting this valuable crop though the
seed have to be imported from the
south each year. The pea crop is val
liable to the farmer in three ways.
i. 1t is one of the best of feeds
either cut as hay, or allowed to ma
ture and the seeds used for feed. 1t
is very rich in nitrogen and in fact is
rich in all the nutrients. Cut just at
the proper time and nicely cured, it
makes perfect food.
1 have seen mules doing hard plow-
ing kept in splendid condition fed on
nothing but pea vine hay.
The peas ground up into meal make
most excellent food for mich cows
when fed in connection with other
food not SO concentrated.
To be convinced that it is one of our
best feeds, one needs but to try it.
2. The mechanical effect of a pea
crop OH the soil is very valuable. No
crop loosens up the soil and makes it
so porous and light as the pea crop
sowed broadcast. There is dense
mat of roots that fill the soil, and
when they rot they leave the soil a
perfect network of little channels or
canals.
These allow the water to soak in the
soil freely and serve to drain the soil
by causing the water to sink down and
pass out through the subsoil, which of
course is the ideal condition for many
reasons.
1t not only. aids in drainage but in
working the soil the next season.
Every one knows who has worked a
crop after peas that the soil is in the
best possible condition.
3. The chemical effect on the soil
for the succeeding crops is unsur-
passed.
Whether to cut the crop, or turn it
under is a question that will have to
be decided by each individual farmer;
and he will of course be governed by
the richness of the soil, what crop he
wishes to follow the peas, and by the
value of hay in his section, and
amount of stock on hand.
To illustrate, if the farmer has no
stock and could get but little for the
hay If cut and sold, then it would pay
to turn the crop under, but if he has
stock that could furnish home mar
ket for his hay, then it would pay and
pay well to cut and feed to them. If
the land is very thin and quite dis
lance from the barn it might pay then
to leave the pea crop on the land.
My advice, however, is to cut and
feed if possible as we then get dou-
BILE benefit.
If sown for hay they should be put
in broadcast, if for seed then the best
results are obtained from sowing
thick in drills about three feet apart
and cuItivating. Sow two bushels per
acre If broadcast, and one peck if in
drills. As to the value of the pea
cIop from chemical standpoint, or
: as food for the succeeding crop it can
not be surpassed. That it is one of the
best of nitrogen gatherers can be
proven by looking on the roots of a
good healthy vine. Hundreds of tu-
bercles will be seen and upon exami-
nation by microscope these will be
found to be the habitation of hun
dreds of myriads of colonies of bac-
terra who possess the peculiar faculty
of taking up free nitrogen and storing
it up as plantfood. This of course is
readily available for the next crop,
matters not what that next crop may
be.
The rest of the plant is very rich in
the three elements usually contained
In fertilizer. Nitrogen, phosphorus,
and potash.
1t is so rich in nitrogen that on
good loamy soil, that element is usual
ly left out of the fertilizer that is APP
piled to that soil next year, especially
as it costs more per pound than the
other two combined.
So where pea crop has been turned
under or even where a good pea stub
BILE has been turned under, it will he
economy to simply use phosphorus
and potash fertilizer.
This formula would suggest about
two parts of PHOSPHORUS to two parts
of potash. Say 800 pounds of acid
phosphate and 200 pounds kainit per
acre.
This mixture used on our ordinary
crops after good pea crop will be
found very beneficial. Put in plenty
of PHOSPHORUS and potash and the