Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-06-20
farm and firssidr.
Why cowpeas Fail to Thrive,

A South Carolina correspondent
writes that he has been farming for
forty years and has always considered
able adjunct to his farming, for the
peas gathered actually paid the cost
of the growing Of the corn.
But he says that of late years the
peas seem to die out, and if they
grow, fail to produce peas, and he has
been obliged to buy peas for sowing
at fancy prices. he wants to know
the remedy. In some parts of the
south the peas are affected by wilt
disease, and the only variety that
seems to resist this is the Iron pea.
Then, too in some places the soil is in
tested with microscopic worms called
nematodes, which cause swollen places
on the roots and destroy the plants.
But where peas fail without disease
1t is evident that the trouble is with
the soil. Farmers fail, as rule, to
realize that while peas will get their
nitrogen from the air, they are greedy
consumers of the phosphoric acid and
potash in the soil, and these may be-
come so deficient that the peas can no
longer thrive. A man once wrote 10
me that what l had been saying about
peas improving the soil was all non
sense, for he said he had taken twelve
crops of peas in succession from
piece of land, and it got SO poor tnat
IT would not grow peas. And do not
know any crop under the sun tnat
man can take from the soil twelve
years in succession and not make the
soil poor.
The methods Of cultivation in many
parts of the south has resulted in
acidity in the soil, and the bacteria
that enable legumes to get and fix the
nitrogen from the air can not thrive
in acid conditions in the soil. Those
that live on the cowpea do seem TO pc
able to thrive in conditions TOO aclu
for other legume crops. But even
the pea will finally refuse to thrive in
acid conditions. Our South Carolina
friend says that even where the plants
seem to thrive, they fail to make SEED.
This evidently is the result OF def
cheney of the phosphoric acid and pot
ash which are mainly concerned in
the formation of the seed. The reme-
dy for these troubles, aside from any
actual disease, is to practice a good
rotation of crops and supply phos-
phoric acid and potash literally, with
a lining once in six years to MAINTAIN
the alkalinity Of the soil. l once took
charge Of a farm where there was a
field that they said would not grow
clover, as it was clover-sick. gave
that field a good coat of lime and new
er saw finer clover grown anywhere
1t was fertile but simply acid. Evil
IDENTIFY when the pea crop thrives, and
yet fails to make peas, there is de-
ficiency in the soil and the remedy Is to
restore. the plant food that is deficient,
and this deficiency will generally be
found to be in phoSphoric acid and
potash, and when these are supplied
and the soil sweetened by lime there
will be no such failure. Where a
man has been for a generation plant
ing peas among his corn and gather
ing the seed he has certainly been
robbing the soil of mineral matters
and need not be surprised that the
soil no longer gives him peas to gath
er. The best practice would be to
grow a special seed plot, planting in
rows and cultivating, and giving lib
eral dressing of phosphoric acid and
potash, and the general crop sown af-
ter grain should all be turned into
hay and fed to cattle on the farm.
If our South Carolina friend has
been planting corn and peas on the
same land, as many there have been
doing, there is nothing to wonder at
hat the peas fail and the corn crop
grows small. He says that he has al
ways valued the peas among corn, but
does not say anything about his meth
cd of farming, and If he has followed
the old practice and has not farmed
his land in a good rotation, there is
nothing to wonder at that he can not
grow peas any more. He is in sec
ton where the sandy soil is naturally
rather deficient in phosphoric acid and
potash, and the peas have helped him
to rob II of what 1t had. Thomas phos-
phate would be good application,
since to some extent it tends to sweet
en- the soil, having 10 per cent Of lime
in it, But this would not furnish lime
enough, and a good article Of shell
lime is needed.-Progressive Farmer.