The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-05-08

ing Free Inc most OOsG4y VI al Fer II1I121ng
EIsments-GrOw Cow Peas Wherever Moth
ing Else is Growing.
.,,-raspondence of Tho Progressive Farmer.
The observant student of agricUl-
+nraI progress cannot have failed to
note the great advance that has been
made in recent years in the cultiva-
+on of leguminOUs plants for the
feeding of cattle and the improve
ment of the soil. The determination
of the agency which these plants
have in the fxatiOn of nitrogen in
the form of organic matter in the
soil is one of the greatest accOmp-
fshments of modern biological study.
The fact that clover and some other
plants did exert a great influence in
improving the fertility of the soil
was long known, but how they did
it was a matter about which nothing
was known until recent years, and
there is still much to be learned in
regard to the exact process by which
the legumes do acquire the nitrogen
Of the air through the agency of
microbes on their roots. But for the
Dractical farmer it is enough to know
that they do it. Knowing the great
good to the soil which has been done
in the North through the use of
clover, many Southern farmers have
tried clover growing with more or
less success. More failures generally
than successes have been made with
clover in the South, particularly in
the cotton lands of the coast region
proper. And right there was where
the benefits of such Il plant were most
needed, for the long constant and
clean culture of cotton had so re
duced the humus in the soil that
commercial fertilizers failed to have
the effect desired in their use and
NO ls5i, suffered more seriously from
the effects of drought than when
fresh and fertile.
For generations the Southern field
Or COW pea has been grown in the
desultory manner in the South,
usually among corn merely for the
purpose Of getting the peas or for
feeding hogs on the land after the
corn was off Only in recent years
have the Southern farmers begun to
wake up to the knowledge of the
wonderful value of the pea both as Il
forage plant and as a soil imprOver.
Farmers who formerly thought they
we're doing a good thing for their
land by letting it lie year between
crops of cotton growing up in all
manner of weeds and grass, have
found out that the most profitable
way TO rest their land is to cover it
with peas instead of weeds, and thus
get valuable feed crop when cured
as hay. while the land is improved in
productive capacity for the follow
inc crop. We are beginning to learn
that there is no reason to regret the
fact that clover is not u success in
the South. for we have at hand a
plant fully adapted to our climate,
which VIII do all that clover can do
for Us, and do in 60 or 90 days what
clover takes two years to accomplish.
II has fallen to my lot to take an ac-
tive part in the battle for the pea,
and In urging on the Southern farmer
the pructicability with it's aid Of in
crea>lng the fertility of his soil to
the highest point of prOductiveness
without the purchase of an ounce of
mrogenous fertilizers. The cotton
LaRds of the South in the sandy sec
lions at least need good supplies of
nitrogen, and this is the most costly
'Alng they have to buy when bought
N a fertilizer. But the pea gives
'nSn this in abundance at the same
aIne 1t Is giving them the most valu-
ABLE of stock foods.
The agitation that has been going
u IN regard to the Southern pea has
asTdctod as much attention among
"le wide awake farmers in the North
''n States as in the South. The in
4o1'nton of early-maturing varie-
.5S has enabled the Northern farmer
" experiment. with the Southern pea
1'1 -a too, has found it is Of ines
,''i~... value. and that the clover
0l. , south" can we'll supplement
,'' o...er in the North. Years ago
vas thought that the pea could
oe made d success north of Mary
!. AMI Delaware. But we have
'''oT9 from farmers who have found