Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-07-24
WALlALLA, 8. c..
WEDNESDAYsJ JULY 81, 1901.
THE COW PEA.
II Is a Land Improver and a Great Hog Pro
ducer-Scientlflc Farming.

The planting of COW peas in the
small grain stubble fields is now in
order. Indeed the work has been
going on for some days past in the
southern part of the cotton bolt.
While the culture of the COW pea has
been a common practice in the South
for several generations past, it is
only within the last one or two dec
AIDES that it has como to be apprcci.
atcd as one of the principal crops of
the farm. We used to grow it
mainly for hog pasturage, the crop
being confined mainly to the corn
fields. Long before the day Of
scientific farming many farmers had
learned of the value of the crop as
land improver. Indeed there was
a general recognition Of its value as
a land improvcr, but not general
utilization of the knowledge by actual
practice. But it is only within a
few years that the value Of the COW
pea as a producer of hay has been
generally known and appreciated.
Chemical analysis shows that COW
pea hay is but little inferior to red
clover hay so far as nutritive con
stituents were concerned. The cows
stomach and her yield Of milk pro-
ducts, the result of feeding to beef
cattle, work horses and mules, prove
that COW pea hay is even more effcc
tive and therefore more valuable
than red clover hay.
There had long been sort of
ycarning amongst the best farmers
to grow red clover for hay and recla-
nation purposes, and there was a
degree of jealousy, or envy, or some
thing of close akin, because clover
did not flourish on soils as it was
known to flourish on soils of no better
character farther north. We can
grow red clover, it is true, on our
clay soils, but experience teaches
that in the South land that will pro.
ducc a paying crop of clover, for any
purpose, would produce yield of
one bale of cotton, or twenty-five
bushels of corn, per acre, and to the
average farmer it appears ridiculous
to plant crop on such a soil for the
purpose OF improving its productive
capacity. Especially would he dcmur
to give up two years to such crop,
as is the general rule with red clover
in the North.
SO we Southern farmers have at
last found out that we have better
land improvcr and hog producer in
the COW pea than ever red clover
could be, even if the latter would
flourish under the same conditions
that are entirely satisfactory to the
COW pea. Aye, more, the Northern
and Northwestern farmers (who
know "good thing" when they see
it) are coming to recognize the value
OF the COW pea on their own soils
and it is being cultivated more OK
tenslvcly every year, even so far
north that the season is not long
enough to permit of ripcning the
seed.
If such an example were needed
as lesson to the South we certainly
have it before us. 1t seems that we
did need the lesson in the case OF
pearl millct (cat-taiD and alfalfa
Ouccrnc.)
June isprc-cmincntly the month for
sowing peas for haying purposes.
Planted earlier than June the COW
pea produces more vines. Planted
later than June it produces less vines
(vcry much less) and probably more
peas. But the grain fields have not
been harvested until from the middle
of May to the middle Of June, and
even later, as we 90 farther north.
On light, soft soils that were well
prepared for the wheat or oats that
have just been harvested no prcpa
ration to the extent Of broadcast
turning over will be required unless
there be vigorous growth Of grass
and weeds. The past week We
sowcd half our fall oat stubble field
without running aplow or even
harrow, but opened furrows in every
alternate oat row with fertilizer
distributor, sowing the peas continu-
ously by hand and covering with
two 2-inch scooter stccls or n Planet,
Jr, cultivator. This drilling in
3-foot rows saves fully two-thirds Of
tho seed as compared with sowing
broadcast.
We have been successful on such
soft soils where the cut-a-w way har-
row was the only implement used to
prepare the land and cover in the |
seed. When dropped "cvcry step"
or sown continuously in 3-foot rows
from one to one and half pccks of
pea seed arc sufficient for an acre.