Farm And Garden

The soy bean ranks high among the leguminous forage plaats of comparatively recent introdnction in this country. Of all legumes in cultivation the peanut alone exceeds it in the amount and digestibility of its food constituents. The soy bean requires about the same class of soils as Indian corn and will grow about as f ar north as that erop can be depended on. The best results with it have been obtajned in the región between the thirty-seventïi and forty-fourth parallel east of the Rocky morintains. The región "best adapted to it, then, is the "corn belt," a circumstance which argües well for its future ise and value in copjunction. with corn 'or fatteníng animáis. The soy bean should be planted in ate spring or early summer after the ;round has become warm. In general the early varieties should be used il a seed erop is desired and the medium or late varieties if it is to be used as forage, it having been found that the latter much excel the former in value for that purpose. In some partS of Virginia the soy bean is plauted in the corn rows in altérnate hillsor between the rows at the time of the final cnltivation. Usually, however, it is grown as a inaïn erop, either broadcast for forage or ia drills when cultiva ted for seed. The amount of seed required when it is sown in drills is less than when planted broadcast, varying from two to three pecks per acre and in the latter case three to four pecks. The rate of growth is quite rapid, and unless the field isvery weedy the erop does not require much cultivation. The erop should be cut for hay from the time of flowering until the pods are half formed. Later thau that the sterns are coarse and woody and the feeding valué rapidly declines. The erop may be converted into good silage and for this purpose should not be cut until the seed is nearly ripe. The chief value of silage is that it provides a suceulent food during the winter time when green forage is not available, but as certain changes take place in the silo, which render a large part of the protein indigestible, it is better to depend upon corn tban to use any leguminous erop for this purpose. The ripe soy beans are among the ricbest of concentrated foods. The yield varies, according to soil and season, from 6 to 13 tons of green forage. The yield of seed varies frorn as low as 15 to as high as 100 bushels per acre, the average being about that of corn, from 25 to 40 bushels. This erop is a heavy potash feeder and requires f ertilization with lime and with potash and phosphoric acid when grown on such lighter soils as are deficiënt in these elements. Acoording to the year book of the de)artment of agrieulture, ttie source of hese statements and illustrations, the oy b.an is one of the most promisiiig of the annual leguminous forage crops, nd, as bef ore indicated, ruay prove of pecial value in connection with Indian orn, the latter supplying the "roughness,"the soy bean producing the digestible crude protein necessary to niake complete and well balanced ration.