ight, sandy
soils require little preparation, and too often the seeding is made in
a woefully careless manner, the chief dependence being placed upon
sufficiently deep covering to insure germination. The ground should be
fitted as well as it is for a cash crop, being made fine and smooth. A
grain drill makes the seeding in a satisfactory manner, and the seed
may be drilled solid or in rows for cultivation. When the crop is grown
as a fertilizer or for hay, solid drilling is good, and about five
pecks of seed gives a good stand of plants if peas are sound. Much
cowpea seed is low in germination power, and the buyer should exercise
caution. When a seed crop is wanted, two to three pecks of seed per
acre, placed in drills 28 to 32 inches apart, make an excellent
seeding, as cultivation can be given. The amount of seed varies with
the variety. In northern latitudes a warm soil is to be desired, and
cultivation gives better results when a seeding to wheat will be made
on the pea-stubble.

There is evidence that the cowpea can make a heavy growth in soils too
deficient in lime for red clover, and it gained its first prominence in
southern Ohio on land that was failing to grow clover. It is the plant
of adversity as well as prosperity, adding rich organic matter to thin
soils, but making its full returns under better conditions. Lime
applications on acid soils give increase in yields. Its one absolute
requirement is heat, and in a cold summer its northern limit is
markedly depressed.

Inoculation.--The inoculation of the soil with cowpea bacteria is
necessary to best results in most regions new to the plant.
Self-inoculation is quicker in the cowpea than in alfalfa because the
vines carry some soil on them, and thus the dust in the seed crop may
be rich in bacteria. However, most new seedings of the cowpea do not
show a large number of nodules on the plant roots, and inoculation
pays. In some cases it makes the difference between failure and
success. Two hundred pounds of soil from an old field should be well
harrowed into each acre of land when preparing for a cowpea seeding in
a new region. The soils of the southern states contain the bacteria
just as the states in the clover belt are supplied with clover
bacteria.

Fertilizers.--The light soils of Maryland, New Jersey, and the southern
states are not naturally rich in phosphoric acid or potash. The cowpea
can draw its nitrogen from the air, but on all thin land it pays