156 Feeds and Feeding. 



market for this product. The bean-like seeds of the soybean, which 

 carry from 16 to 21 per ct. of oil, are used for human food and for 

 feeding animals. The oil is used for human food and in the arts, and 

 the resulting meal from which the oil has been extracted is em- 

 ployed as a feed for animals and for fertilizing the land. The 

 yield of the soybean per acre varies from 12 to 20 or more bushels 

 of 60 lbs. each, this plant yielding as well as corn on poor soil in the 

 Gulf States. No other plant in the United States grown so little 

 at this time as the soybean is so full of promise to agriculture, espe- 

 cially to animal husbandry. Clover, alfalfa, and vetch are legumes 

 that give us most valuable protein roughage. The Canada field pea, 

 soybean, and cowpea furnish protein-rich concentrates with rough- 

 age secondary. Hence a combination of one or more from each 

 class will go far toward freeing the feeder from purchasing costly 

 feeding stuffs. 



Humphrey and Fuller of the Wisconsin Station^ found ground 

 soybeans from 8 to 10 per ct. more valuable than wheat middlings 

 for pig feeding. They recommend feeding 1 part of soybeans with 

 2 parts of corn. Duggar of the Alabama Station- found soybean 

 pasture next in value to peanut pasture for fattening pigs. (868) 

 Humphrey and Kleinheinz of the Wisconsin Station" found equal 

 parts of soybeans and shelled corn superior to equal parts of oats 

 and shelled corn for lambs, the soybeans producing larger gains for 

 a given amount of feed and a much heavier clip of wool. (753) But- 

 ter from soybean meal is softer than that from cotton-seed meal. 

 (643) Soybean meal should always be used in combination with 

 other grains, and the meal from which the oil has been expressed 

 should prove superior to the ground seeds. 



202. Peanut, Arachis hypogaea. — The peanut, or earth nut, is of 

 growing importance as feed for stock in the Southern States. The un- 

 derground seeds or nuts of the peanut are quite commonly harvested 

 by turning swine into the fields when the seeds are ripened, and allow- 

 ing them to feed at will. The vines with the nuts attached are often 

 gathered and cured into a nutritious, palatable hay useful with all 

 kinds of farm stock. Both the entire nuts and the peanut waste of 

 the factories are useful if fed to swine in moderate quantity, while a 

 heavy allowance produces soft fat and inferior meat. The famous 

 Smithfield hams and bacons come from pigs fed partially on pea- 

 nuts. (870) 



' Ept. 1906. = Bui. 143. ' Ept. 1905. 



