The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1912-04-04
COWPEAs.
Bulletin Mo. State Board OF Agriculture.

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er. When cowpeas are Cut for hay
they contain a great deal of water,
the stems are fleshy, and it takes sew
eral days of good weather to proper
ly cure them. Too often rain will
come before they are cured, and this
causes the leaves to drop off badly,
resulting in poor product. Peas, as
rule, can not be cured most perfect
ly in the swath unless the weather is
exceptionally favorable. 1t is much
better to let them dry for couple of
days, then rake into light windrows
and allow them to finish curing that
way or to place them in tall narrow
shocks and allow them to stand for
two or three weeks. Where they are
cured in the windows, side-delivery
rake is almost essential to their proper
curing. With this implement they
may be turned over every couple of
days until thoroughly cured, and this
is especially necessary where rain
falls during the curing period. Where
the peas are very trailing, some
trouble will be experienced in hand
ling them with a side-delivery rake,
or with any rake, for that matter, but
with the general purpose varieties,
this will not be of material conse-
quence.
Peas should be cut for hay about
the time the first pods begin to ripen.
If cut earlier than this, they are usual
ly too sappy to cure into good hay.
Where seed is desired, cutting should,
of course, be delayed until most OF
the pods begin to ripen. This will
not give quite such good quality of
hay, but where they are properly
cured this difference is of little conse-
quence.
In some parts of the State the cow
peas are baled directly from the
shock and sometimes from the wind
row. This is perfectly practicable
where they are we'll cured and where
the weather is favorable, but one
must avoid baling them with any
amount of moisture in them, as in the
case of clover. Where peas are
threshed it is common practice to
run the straw directly from the
thresher into baler, and this baled
straw or vine, makes exceptionally
good feed, even if the peas have been
removed. 1t has a feeding value
about equal to that of clover, and the
shredding action of the thresher gives
it fine texture.
Cowpeas may be stacked in the
field very satisfactorily just as clover
hay is stacked, but they will not keep
we'll unless the stack is covered either
with some sort of hay, such as timo-
thy or wild grass, or with some
special covering.
Threshing
A good deal of difficulty has been
in threshing cowpeas, in
preventing cracking. This is espe-
cially true of the larger seeded varie-
ties. The ordinary wheat thresher
when run at the regular speed for
wheat, will so crack the
larger seeded varieties of cowpeas as
to make them practically useless for
sowing. The result has been that
have spent good deal
Of time perfecting a huller,- or SO
modifying the wheat thresher, that
peas may be threshed without crack
ing. 1t has been found that where
the speed of the cylinder in the ordi-
nary wheat thresher is decreased to
about seven or eight hundred revolu-
lions per minute, or where a part of
the concave teeth are removed, cow
peas may be handled with the proper
of sleeves and very little
cracking results. This is especially
true of the smaller seeded variety of
peas, such as the New Era. 1t is
more satisfactory, however, to use a
regular pea huller for this purpose,
and a number of companies now have
these on the market.
Cowpea hullers have slow speed
Of the cylinder and have the distance
between the cylinder and concave
teeth widened so that the peas will
not be cracked. They require a
slightly greater horse power to
operate than does the ordinary wheat
on account of the heavier
vines of the cowpeas and the slower