Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1914 — SOY BEANS-THEIR CULTURE AND USES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOY BEANS-THEIR CULTURE AND USES

By C. O. CROMER,

Department of Soils and Crops, Purdue University E» periment Station.

Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

“My clover failed on account of dry weather,” or “My clover froze out." “Now what shall I do or what can I sow to make up for the clover failure?” This Ifta question that has been put to the soils and crops department many times. Until within the last ten or fifteen years this question was hard to answer, but the department now knows the value of some of the annual legumes as substitutes for clover. One of the most Important among these is the soy bean. The soy bean, being a legume that matures in one year; is subject, more or less, to the same conditions and the same treatment as any of the other annual plants. Being subject to frost and freezing, it becomes necessary to delay the planting until all danger of frost has passed by. As a general rule, It is safe to plant soy beans immediately after the corn has been planted or from the fifteenth of May on. For seed production, the soy bean should be planted not later than the tenth of June and, if then, only the earlier maturing varieties should be used. The earlier maturing the variety used, the smaller will be the yield of seed. There are three methods of planting soy beans: drilling in rows, drilling solid, and sowing broadcast. The seed may be sown in rows, not over thirtysix Inches apart for largest seed yields with a corn planter, setting the drill attachment to drop, on the average, one seed every two inches, or with a grain drill set to sow one and one-half to two bushels of oats per acre. The seed should not be covered deeper than one or one and a half inches. A heavy rain may pack the ground so firmly that the plants cannot push their way through, when covered deeper. Broadcasting is the least desirable method of sowing soy beans of any, because of the poor germination that may occur due to insufficient covering and moisture and the consequent large percentage of weeds that grow up. The average of several years’ experimentation at this station shows that, when sown In rows, a slightly larger yield of seed and hay has been secured from the rows sown from twenty-four to twenty-eight Inches apart than from rows over thirty-two inches wide. Drilling solid with a wheat drill at the rate of 60 pounds of seed per acre produced a bushel of seed and nearly seven hundred pounds of hay per acre more than sowing in rows twenty-four to

twenty-eight inches apart. Drilling -solid also produced 8% bushels of seed and 1,300 jxjunda of hay more than the broadcasting method produced, and greatly lessened the percentage of weeds. Weeds are quite troublesome, even where the seed is drilled solid, when the season is wet, but on the average the best yields of both grain and hay can be obtained by drilling tsolid so far as experiments at this station Indicate. If the groqnd is foul it probably would be best to sow In rows. The soy bean crop, of course, can be cultivated only when it is growing in rows, and up until harvest time It may be handled as one would cultivate corn. A corn cultivator with adjustable wheels can be used on rows not 1 less than twenty-eight or thirty inches wide.

Soy beans, as well as the cow peas, are adapted for Use In the rotation when clover fails. Instead of sowing the field due for a legume to a grain crop, either soy beans or cow peas may be sown in the spring, and the crop cutin the late summer either for seed or hoy. An average yield of seed is fifteen to twenty bushels. Many farmers are able to produce from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels of seed per acre. It is also possible to obtain from three to four tons of soy bean hay, while a yield of less than two tons would be considered unsatisfactory. Soy beans are excellent feed for hogs in the early fall when balanced up with com. Young animals make good gains and a large amount of vegetable material is tramped into the soil. Soy beans make a good growth when sown after the wheat crop is harvested, provided there is sufficient moisture to keep the plants growing. Under favorable conditions ten tons, on the average, of wilted green material can be produced. If an early variety of seed is used, and the season is unusually long, a fair crop of seed can be harvested by sowing after wheat harvest The chief purpose of an after harvest crop of soy beans is for plowing under. Soy bean oil is coming into prominence for a variety of purposes, su& as soap making and as a partial substitute for linseed oil in paints, and it is safe to predict that the manufacture of this product will be one of the new industries of this country which will be a source of considerable profit and at the same time build up a profitable market for soy beans for the farmer.

A Successful Field of Soy Beans.