GROWING SOY BEANS IN ALABAMA 



By 



E. F. Cauthen 

 Associate Agriculturist 



The soy bean is an erect leguminous plant introduced 

 from Asia. In China and Japan it is grown extensively 

 and used for human food, soil improvement, forage and 

 commercial purposes. 



The acreage of soy beans in Alabama is increasing 

 rapidly. The livestock farmers and feeders desire 

 crops that can partly take the place of corn, cottonseed 

 meal and other expensive feeds. They are finding that 

 the soy bean makes a valuable substitute in the feeding 

 of horses and cattle and swine; that its hay is nutritious 

 and liked by stock; and that the crop can be harvested 

 cheaply. 



Uses 



Soy beans are rich in protein and make a good pas- 

 ture for growing hogs, which graze on the young and 

 tender leaves, and later feed on the ripened beans. 

 Pasture experiments at Auburn show that pork was 

 made from the feeding of a two-third corn ration and 

 soy bean pasture at a cost of only ^2.74 per hundred 

 pounds.* 



The value of the soy bean for soil improvement 

 should not be overlooked. Being a legume it gathers 

 atmospheric nitrogen and puis it in the soil for any 

 succeeding crop. In addition to being a nitrogen gath- 

 erer, it improves the physical condition of the soil rap- 

 idly. Experiments made at Auburn in 1911 and 1914 

 show that cotton, when planted after corn and after soy 

 beans drilled, from which onl}^ the seed was harvested, 

 the soy bean land made an average increase over the 

 corn land of 318 pounds of seed cotton per acre. If the 

 seed cotton was reckoned at 4 cents per pound, the fer- 

 tilizing value of the soy bean stubble and straw would 

 be worth .^^12.72 per acre. In another test where the 

 soy bean land and corn land were planted in fall oats, 

 the increase in yield of oats due to the fertilizing value 

 of the soy bean stubble was 173 per cent over the corn 

 lond. 



*Page 63, Bulletin 143, Alabama Eperiment Station. 



