Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1917 — LARGE CROP OF SOY BEANS IS REQUIRED [ARTICLE]

LARGE CROP OF SOY BEANS IS REQUIRED

Farmers Should Greatly Increase Acreage of This Crop for Oil and Human Food. Although farmers have planned to grow a far larger crop of soy beans In 1917 than ever before, they should now greatly increase the acreage of this crop. The department of farm crops of the Missouri college of agriculture predicts that as a result of the war the crop will be In demand as a feeding concentrate, for oil and "for human food in addition to its normal use as a forage crop. —< • —— Experiments have shown soy bean meal to have about the same feeding value as cottonseed meal; and cottonseed meal will probably be so high next fall that it cannot be afforded for feeding. There Is sound reason then for anticipating a great demand on the crop for use as a feeding concentrate. Because of the present shortage of fats and oils throughout the world, due to war consumption and low production in Europe, all available

sources of these necessary materials will presently be utilized. Although the soy bean is not considered a source for oil in this part of the country, in Virginia and North Carolina, the threshed crop is sold mainly to the cotton oil mills, where the oil is expressed and the residue, or cake, ground into meal. Indeed soy bean seed is actually second only to cottonseed as a source of vegetable oils. It now seems certain that the demand for soy bean oil will soon become greater than can be supplied by the Eastern crop and that the Missouri crop will be drawn on to meet the need.

During the war, when foodstuffs of all kinds will continually diminish, many unusual kinds of human food will be brought into use. The soy bean is one of the crops which will be utilized. Already several manufacturers in the East have successfully substituted soy beans for navy beans in baked pork and beans. Indeed the demand In the East for soy c beans for packing and for planting has been so great since last fall that the cotton oil mills have practically ceased crushing seed and are turning them to the planters and packers. One mill which last fall bought 10,000 bushels of seed and planned to crush at least 100,000 bushels did not crush any seed but disposed of the whole stock for food and planting. Only the yellow-seeded varieties are used for food, "*

With the war-time demand on /he soy bean crop for an animal concentrate, for human food, and for oil, in addition to the normal for forage and seed for planting, there Is no doubt that high prices will be maintained. Soy beans are now selling at $3.50 to $4.00 a bushel —at double the usual price—and farmers should not fail to plant the largest possible acreage. It will be a profitable and patriotic enterprise.