THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 291 



in Japan as professor of agriculture enabled him to ascertain the merits 

 of the crop, we naturally turn to the Kansas station for the most reliable 

 information for western growers, and we do not know that we can do 

 better than to quote from their bulletin of March, 1900, as follows: 



"The soy bean should not be planted until the ground becomes warm 

 and the danger of severe frost is over. While the plants may not die 

 if the seed is put in earlier, they do not thrive. No extra growth is 

 gained by too early planting, and the weeds are more likely to grow 

 and make more cultivation necessary. We usually begin putting in soy 

 beans as soon as we have finished planting corn. The beans should be 

 planted in rows thirty to forty-two inches apart, with the single beans 

 dropped one to two inches apart in the rows. One-half bushel of seed per 

 acre is required. The ground should be in good tilth, and the weeds thor- 

 oughly killed just before the beans are planted. 



"We prefer surface planting. Shallow listing is some times success- 

 ful 1 , but we have lost several crops from listing by heavy rains falling 

 before the beans came up, filling the furrows so full that the young plants 

 were killed. Several Kansas farmers have reported good stands by 

 listing, then filling the furrow nearly full with the cultivator and plant- 

 ing the beans in the shallow furrow that is left. 



"The beans may be planted with a grain drill or with a corn drill, 

 having the plate drilled to drop right. At the college we plant with an 

 eleven-hole grain drill, stopping all holes but the two outside ones and 

 the middle hole. This puts the beans in rows thirty inches apart. We 

 prefer this distance, where the teams are trained to work in narrow 

 rows. 



"We cultivate the same as corn, using the two-horse cultivator with 

 small shovels and taking great care not to ridge the ground. Level cul- 

 ture is necessary to harvesting a full crop. The ground should be kept 

 clean, free from weeds and grass, and we prefer the shallow tillage which 

 secures a good earth mulch. 



"The crop should be harvested when the pods turn brown and before 

 the beans are fully ripe. If left until the beans become thoroughly ripe, 

 the pods will open and the beans will be scattered on the ground. 



"The only satisfactory way we have found for harvesting the crop 

 is to cut the plants off just below the surface of the ground and rake 

 them into windrows with a horse rake. Where not over ten acres are 

 grown this cutting can be done by removing the shovels from a two- 

 horse cultivator and bolting to the inner shank of each beam a horizontal 

 knife about eighteen inches long, the knife set out from the cultivator 

 and sloping back from point of attachment to point so as not to clog. 

 Any blacksmith can make these knives. With such an arrangement two 

 rows are cut at a time, the knives being set to cut the plants just below 

 the surface." 



As to yield, the same report says: 



"The Early Yellow soy bean, planted in the spring, with yield from 

 ten to twenty bushels per acre, depending upon the soil and season. The 



