Growing Cowpeas.

What is the best variety of cow peas for a forage crap?  I want a variety which with irrigation will come up after it has been cut, so as to keep growing and not be like some which I tried last year.  They grew up like ordinary garden peas and were just a waste of ground.

Possibly you did not get cowpeas; they do not look like garden peas at all:  they look more like running beans, which they are.  The crop is not counted satisfactory except on low, moist land, for on uplands, even with irrigation, it does not seem to behave right.  We do not know that a second growth can be expected, for in the Southern States it is grown as a single crop, and resowing is done if a succession is desired, the point being made at the South that the plant is adapted to this method of culture because it grows so rapidly that it can be twice sown and harvested during the frost-free period.

Cowpeas in the San Joaquin.

How late in the season will it be profitable to plant cowpeas?  What is the best manner of planting?  Are there several varieties?  If so, which one is best adapted to plant after oats?  The land can be irrigated until about August 10.  Will it be advisable to plow up a poor stand of alfalfa about July 1 and plant to cow peas?

You can plant cowpeas all summer on land which is moist enough by natural moisture or irrigation to promote growth.  What you will get by late planting depends upon moisture and absence of an early fall frost.  If your alfalfa stand is bad enough to need re-sowing anyway, you may get a good catch crop of cowpeas by doing as you propose.  If, however, you plow under much coarse stuff in putting in the peas the growth may be irregular.  It can, of course, be improved by free irrigation.  On clear land moderately retentive much more is being done in summer growth of cowpeas without irrigation than expected.  There are several good varieties.  One of these is the Whippoorwill.  Cowpeas can be sown in furrows three feet apart and cultivated, using about 40 pounds of seed to the acre, or they may be broadcasted, which takes about twice as much seed.

Cowpeas and Canadian Peas.

Would Canadian field peas and cow peas be valuable as a forage crop for cows and hogs; also as fertilizer?  Please tell us also when to plant, how to plant, etc.

These plants are of high forage value as cow feed; also as a soil restorative when the whole crop is plowed under green or when the roots and manure from feeding add to the soil.  But for either purpose the result depends upon how much growth you can get, and that should be told by local trial before any great outlay is undertaken.  Canadian peas are hardy against frost and can be broadcasted and covered with shallow plowing as soon as the land is moist enough from fall rains — except in very frosty parts of the State.  They can also be sown in drills to advantage.  Cow peas are beans, and cannot be planted until frost danger is over in the spring.  They are only available for summer feeding, and whether they will be worth while or not depends upon how much moisture can be held in the soil for summer growth.  They should be sown in drills and cultivation continued for moisture conservation until the plants cover the ground too much to get the cultivator through.