SOY BEANS 



^ 



leaching for 8 to 10 hours. The leaching is best accomplished in wire 

 baskets set in running water (p. 30). It is impossible to avoid consider- 

 able losses of nutrients in this operation. As long as they are still wet 

 or damp, the leached lupines spoil rapidly. To avoid spoiling they should 

 be fed at once or dried artificially. Horses may receive 10 pounds of 

 leached lupines per day, milk cows 7 pounds, fattening cattle as high as 

 17 pounds, ewes with lambs ^ pound, fattening sheep and rams 1 pound. 

 For cattle and swine the' leached lupines must, in addition, be crushed. 

 Horses and sheep take them whole with chaffed feed. The transition 

 to lupine feeding must be made gradually. The leaching process must 

 be conducted with care and the product tested by "taste." Horses usu- 

 ally object more or less to leached lupines and swine may refuse them 

 obstinately. 



c. Soy-Beans 

 The soy-bean, or soja bean (Soja hispida. Fig. 48) is cultivated chiefly 

 in eastern Asia (China, Japan, Java) and in recent times in central and 



Fig. 48. Soy-bean plant with ripe pods. 



southern Europe and the Western States of North America. In Ger- 

 many their cultivation has as yet not proved very profitable. The climate 

 is too cold. It is possible that soil inoculation with specific nitrifying 

 bacteria may aid in the production of increased yields.* 



Their seeds are characterized by a high fat and protein content, 18 



•See Bulletins Agr. Exp. Sta. of Kansas.— TransJator. 



