DESCRIPTION 427 



Soy beans have not been grown long enough so that all the best 

 varieties are known to each region. South of the Ohio River to 

 North Carolina it has generally been found that the large, rather 

 late varieties are most productive. Of these the Mammoth, a late, 

 large-growing variety, three to five feet tall, is the most popular. 

 Hollybrook and Haberland, both one to two weeks earlier than 

 Mammoth, are also grown to a less extent. A little north, or through 

 the Ohio River valley, somewhat earlier varieties are required. Ito 

 San and Pekin, both maturing in about one hundred and twenty 

 days, are very satisfactory for this region. In the general region 

 north of the Ohio River, and including most of the corn belt, the 

 Wilson variety and the Guelph, also known as Medium Green, have 

 given best results. Of the two, Guelph is probably better for forage. 



Adaptations. Soy beans, like cow peas, are hot-weather plants, 

 and do rather poorly wherever either the days or nights are cool. 

 The short growing season of early varieties, however, enables them 

 to be grown profitably at least three hundred miles north of cow 

 peas. While the cow pea region extends northward about the Ohio 

 River, soy beans are profitably grown as far north as Ontario, 

 Canada. While soy beans do well in humid climates, they are also 

 remarkably drought-resistant, and it is their ability to produce a 

 fair crop of seeds under the hot and rather dry summer climate of 

 Kansas that first stimulated their culture in this country. 



Soy beans, like cow peas, are adapted to a wide range of soils and 

 are of special value, due to their ability to produce a fair crop on 

 rather poor soils, especially soils of a sandy character. While soy 

 beans are grown throughout the eastern half of the United States, 

 they at present seem to have found a most important place in agri- 

 culture in about the same region as crimson clover, which might be 

 roughly defined as lying between the red clover region on the north 

 and the cow pea region on the south. They are of greatest 

 importance from New Jersey and Maryland westward. 



Description. Soy beans are characterized by their stiff upright 

 habit of growth, with little tendency to produce vines, except in a 

 few varieties. They have a strictly determinate growth, that is, the 

 plant and seeds ripen at the same time, in which they are very 



