THE SOYA BEAN I 47 



ussuriensis in places as far apart as North Mexico, 

 Japan, Java, and Bengal. But, except in the case of 

 Japan, it has no commercial value in any of these 

 countries, being grown more or less as a catch crop 

 among other and better known legumes, or as green 

 food for cattle. It is from Northern China that the 

 world's market in soya bean is at present supplied. 

 Here vast areas are devoted to the crop. Although 

 of rapid growth — it will often attain maturity, and 

 be fit to thresh, within nine weeks of actual sowing 

 — the Chinese are content to raise only one crop a 

 year. The seed is sown in early May, and is raised 

 under the tropical conditions obtaining in Manchuria 

 during midsummer. When ripened the whole plant 

 is pulled bodily out of the soil and laid on the ground 

 for forty-eight hours to dry in the scorching sun. 

 By this method — which is much to be preferred to 

 the system of kiln-drying practised in less sun- 

 favoured Japan — the little legume is plentifully and 

 richly endowed with the greatest oil-yielding pro- 

 perties and undergoes those chemical changes which 

 make its flour one of the most nutritious to man 

 and beast. 



There are many varieties of the soya bean, all dis- 

 tinguished by varying colours rather than by differ- 

 ence of shape or texture. Thus we have the yellow 

 Huang-ton, the green Ching-ton, and the black Wu- 

 ton, all of which are excellent oil yielders and pro- 

 vide valuable feeding material in the pressed residue 

 cake. Neither the white nor the red variety is of 

 much account as an oil-producer, although deservedly 

 cherished among the population of the province of 



k 2 



