LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 139 



should prove less valuable relatively in providing 

 pasture, especially for cattle and sheep. 



This plant, like the cowpea, develops somewhat 

 slowly at first, especially in northerly latitudes, but 

 later it grows more rapidly. In appearance it 

 resembles a common bean, but the foliage is larger 

 and much more luxuriant, and the habit of growth 

 is more upright, as previously intimated. With all 

 the conditions favorable this plant in some of its 

 varieties will grow to the hight of at least four feet, 

 and it produces a large yield of green food. And 

 where the seasons are long enough, the plants lade 

 heavily with pods which mature a food for stock 

 that is exceedingly rich in protein. 



Distribution. — The distribution of the soy bean 

 is not very different from that of the cowpea, at least 

 so far as concerns climatic conditions (see Page 

 130) . But some of the early varieties, as the medium 

 or green, can be grown successfully further north 

 than the cowpea. The claim, however, that they 

 will flourish as far north as corn is not quite correct, 

 although good results have been obtained from 

 growing them at the Massachusetts experiment sta- 

 tion. Since the soy bean requires better land than 

 the cowpea, its distribution will be somewhat more 

 circumscribed, that is to say, it will be more sec- 

 tional within the general area where it may be grown 

 at its best. And since it will stand drouth better 

 than the cowpea, it has special adaptation for some 

 of the states west of the Mississippi and south of 

 Minnesota, as, for instance, the states of Kansas, 

 Nebraska. Arkansas and Oklahoma. 



While the soy bean can be grown at its best in 

 all the states south of the Ohio and east of the Mis- 



