they aren't ready for hay till the hot weather is mostly past. If we
could handle them in June and July, as we do timothy we'd have no
trouble; but we don't get cowpeas planted till June, and September is a
poor time for haying."

"It seems to me that clover is a much more satisfactory crop," said
Percy. "One can sow clover with oats in the spring, or on wheat land in
the late winter, and there is no more trouble with it until it is ready
for haying about fifteen months later, unless the land is weedy or the
clover makes such a growth the first fall that we must clip it to
prevent either the weeds or the clover from seeding. This means that
when you are planting your ground for cowpeas the next year after wheat
or oats, we are just ready to begin harvesting our clover hay; and
besides the regular hay crop we usually have some growth the fall before
which is left on the land as a fertilizer, and then we get a second crop
of clover which we save either for hay or seed. Even after the seed crop
is harvested there is usually some later fall growth, and some let the
clover stand till it grows some more the next spring and then plow it
under for corn."

"I can see that clover would be much better than cowpeas if we could
grow it; but, as I said, it's played out here. Our land simply won't
grow it any more. Not having to plow for clover would save a great deal
of the work we must do for our cowpeas."

"Some of our farmers follow a three-year rotation and plow the ground
only once in three years," said Percy. "They plow the ground for corn,
disk it the next spring when oats and clover are seeded, and then leave
the land in clover the next year. In that way they regularly harvest
four crops, including the two clover crops, from only one plowing; and