St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-05-28
FOR IMPROVING SOIL
cewpea Is One of Greatest Or.
chard Cover Crops Grown.
One Of Factors Upon Which Building
Up of Much Worn Land Is Deepen
dent and Fills the Bill in More
Places Than Any Other Plant.

The cowpea is not only the greatest
orchard cover crop grown in the Ohio
Valley, but it is one of the factors
upon which the building up Of much
worn soils is dependent. 1t does not
follow that it is the best crop to grow
in the orchard under all circum-
stances. nor is it the only factor In
soil improvement, but it fills the bill
in more places than does any other
plant, says j. w. Griffin in Market
Growers Journal.
Being a 1egume, it augments the
available supply of nitrogen in the
soil; it's extensive root system makes
the soil more porous and mellow. 1t
may be sown late enough, July l.,
with us, so as not to stand in the way
of clean cultivation during the spring.
A hard, lumpy, crusty soil does not
respond we'll to cultivation. If it is
difficult to get the land in good shape,
a single crop of cowpeas will mellow
it to a great extent. The more porous
and spongy the land, due to the
growth of cowpeas, the better it will
withstand drought.
Cowpeas add humus to the soil,
which enhances it's water-boiling ca
pacity. The fact that the soil be-
comes more porous also makes it pos
sible to form better dust mulch by
cultiyating, which also increases the
possibility of checking evaporation.
y-l,o Sc no
come more readily by growing crop
of cowpeas than that of any other
crop
Where cowpeas are to be pastured
by hogs, varieties that produce many
seeds are desirable. Among the best
varieties for this purpose are Whip
poCrwill and New Era. These sorts
mature In short time. Some of the
late sorts also make many seed.
1t is we'll to ascertain what varieties
seed we'll in certain localities and Sc
lect these if they are to be used as
feed.
When grown for hay or as soiling
crop the seed of the black or gray
varieties should be planted as they
make a large growth of vine and
fair amount of seed.
have tried several methods of
planting the cowpea, such as broad
casting and blowing them in, putting
them in with a grain drill. stopping
each alternate hole so as not to get
them too thick, and with one horse,
Campbell, corn drill with plate with
small holes especially made for peas
and beans This last method gives
much the best results. With the corn
drill they are put in rows, 80 inches
apart for the bush sorts and IS inches
for the heavy vining sorts. Amount
per acre, of the small seeded varieties,
one bushel, and Of the large seeded
varieties, one and one-half bushels
per acre.
Clean culture is given the soil from
early spring until the seeds are plant
ed. Just as the seeds are coming up
the spike toothed harrow is started.
BY the time the peas are five or six
inches tall we have been over them
twice. Sometimes it seems as though
we are tearing them all out by the
roots, but we just keep on stirring
with the harrow and the peas just
grow that much faster.
The peas are cultivated until the
vines meet between the rows; this to
keep down weed growth as much as
anything else. When the growth of
vine is heavy enough to shade the
ground all over, there will be no
weeds able to grow and mature seed.
With rotation of wheat, cowpeas,
corn and potatoes, and sometimes the
wheat seeded to clover for crop of
hay for the milk COWS, we are build
ing up our soil and at the same time
producing paying crops.