Cowpea

a summer annual, in appearance resembling the field bean. The cowpea is a native of India and possibly of China. In the East it has been under cultivation for the last two thousand years. In the cotton belt of the United States, the cowpea takes the place of the red clover of more northern and cooler regions. The leaf of the cowpea is tri-foliate. The flowers vary from purple to white. The pods are from five to ten inches in length and are well filled with kidney-shaped or roundish peas. There are numerous varieties. Several, known as crowders, are so called because the beans are crowded together so closely as to have flattened ends. So far as frost is concerned, the cowpea is very tender. Along the Gulf seed is sown in April. In Delaware it is sown as late as July. Like clover and alfalfa, the roots of the cowpea bear tubercles that store up nitrogen. The raising of a crop of cowpeas fertilizes the soil. The crop is cured like a crop of clover or alfalfa. Stacks of cowpea hay have little power to turn rain. The crop, therefore, requires barns or other protection.