428 PEAS, BEANS, VETCHES, PEANUTS 



different from cow peas that continue to grow and blossom until 

 killed by frost. The soy bean blossoms are minute and borne in 

 dense clusters near the main stem. The flower, like that of the 

 cow pea, is strictly self-fertilized, and therefore is not at all like red 

 clover, dependent on the agency of insects to produce seed. Soy 

 beans are much more reliable in seed production than cow peas. With 

 cow peas any condition of climate and soil that tends to produce a 

 rank growth of foliage usually retards the seed production, but soy 

 beans produce heavy crops of seeds under practically all soil and 

 climatic conditions. In general, however, soy beans are less adapted 

 to forage production than the cow peas. 



Culture for Seed Production. When soy beans are grown 

 principally for the seed crop, they are usually planted in rows from 

 two to four feet apart, depending on the size of the plant and con- 

 venience in cultivation. The smaller varieties, under two feet in 

 height, will have plenty of room for full development if planted in 

 rows two feet apart, and the plants two to three inches apart in the 

 row, while the very largest varieties, such as Mammoth, should be 

 planted in rows from three to four feet apart, and plants about three 

 inches apart in the row. 



Soy beans may be planted any time after the ground is well 

 warmed up in the spring. The seed rots very easily if planted in cold 

 soil. Ordinarily they should be planted a week or two weeks later 

 than corn. When grown in rows, twenty to thirty pounds of seed per 

 acre are sufficient. Clean culture must be practised until the pods 

 are well set. Soy beans usually ripen quite uniformly, but generally 

 the first pods are ripe from two to three weeks before the later ones 

 mature. As the beans shell and drop to the ground quite easily when 

 they ripen, it is the general custom to begin harvesting when the first 

 pods begin to open. If harvested during damp weather, they can be 

 cut and bound with a self-binder. If this machine is found to shell 

 out too many beans, the next best method is to use the regular bean 

 harvester. The beans should be cured in very small shocks in the 

 field, handling them mostly on damp days or while the dew is on. 

 The average yield is from fifteen to forty bushels to the acre, but 

 maximum yields of forty to fifty bushels are sometimes secured. 



