90 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



cutting may be delayed in the case of most of the varieties until all 

 of the leaves have fallen. The Guelph and a few other varieties not 

 on the market retain the leaves late and much seed would be lost by 

 shattering if the harvesting were not done earlier. The plants should 

 be allowed to become thoroughly dry after cutting before they are 

 stacked or put into a barn or shed. 



Soy Beans in Rotations. Soy bean is admirably adapted to 

 short rotations, taking either an entire season or a part of a season 

 following some small-grain crop. In Tennessee and North Carolina 

 a soy-bean crop is often grown between two wheat crops, and in other 

 parts of the South between oat crops. In such cases, however, an 

 early variety like the Ito San or the Haberlandt is preferable. Where 

 a whole season is devoted to soy-bean two crops of the earlier varieties 

 can be matured in all parts of the cotton belt, and this is in many 

 cases preferable to growing a single crop of a late variety. Where 

 the whole season is thus devoted to soy beans, it may take any place 

 in a rotation system where corn can be used. The consensus of 

 opinion among farmers is that a crop of soy beans benefits the suc- 

 ceeding crop, but not to so great a degree as one of the cowpeas. Re- 

 garding the fertilizer requirements of soy beans there are but few 

 data available. Where fertilizers are used, the general practice is to 

 use acid phosphate at the rate of 200 to 300 pounds per acre and 

 muriate of potash at the rate of 50 pounds per acre. 



Feeding Value of Soy Beans. The feeding value of any forage 

 crop and for any particular purpose can be determined only by actual 

 feeding experiments. There are, of course, definite relations between 

 the digestible constituents of a feed and the resultant gains in flesh 

 or milk. These relations are, however, more complex than a table 

 of analyses indicates. On this account the relative value of feeds 

 is best shown by comparative feeding trials. Such trials indicate that 

 good soy-bean hay is about equal to alfalfa for milk and butter pro- 

 duction. They also show that soy-bean meal is somewhat superior 

 to cotton-seed meal in the production of pork, mutton, and milk. 

 Soy-bean meal also proves to be slightly more valuable than wheat 

 middlings in feeding hogs. 



Feeding Value for Sheep. The Wisconsin Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station has tested the value of soy-bean seed for fattening 

 lambs. In one experiment two lots of 10 lambs each were fed the 

 same roughage. One lot received shelled corn and whole soy beans 

 in equal proportions, while the other received the same quantities of 

 shelled corn and whole oats. The average gain of each lamb during 

 a period of twelve weeks was 16.3 pounds when soy beans constituted 

 a part of the ration and but 13.7 pounds when oats were used. A 

 pound of gain was produced on 6.11 pounds of grain and 7.11 pounds 

 of roughage in the soy-bean ration, while 7.28 pounds of grain and 

 8.62 pounds of roughage were required on the oats ration. In an- 

 other experiment the same rations were fed for twelve weeks to two 

 lots of 9 lambs each. The lot receiving the soy-bean ration gained 

 119 pounds in weight and produced 95.1 pounds of wool, against 

 71 pounds increase in weight and a production of 81.3 pounds of 



