98 



The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Taming Wild 

 Soils 



Yelvet Bean 

 the Ideal 

 Legume 



of the humus is the same no matter from what particular plant it 

 may have been derived. That being the case, the plants which we 

 want to grow for our humus are those which will give us the great- 

 est number of pounds per acre. 



The desirable humus crop is one which will grow rapidly and 

 make a heavy yield, which will decay quickly, and, if possible, one 

 which will not . only provide humus but will also absorb nitrogen 

 from the air and so give us that most expensive element in com- 

 mercial fertilizers. This is the ideal type of humus producing 

 plant; and we have such plants in the legumes, plants which draw 

 their nitrogen from the air and which are equal to any others in 

 providing the humus. Mr. Piper said we had something over ten 

 thousand species of legumes. Out of this ten thousand we have 

 cultivated perhaps a couple of hundred, so you see we have barely 

 touched them. They have an infinite variety. We have some 

 which grow very large, and some slender, and some in bushes and 

 some on vines, and some are short straggling plants. Some grow 

 in winter and some in summer. In that group we can get some 

 species which will fit almost any desired condition or farm. 



It is a recognized fact that on most of our pine woods soils 

 we do not get as good a yield of corn, or of cotton, and some other 

 crops, the year in which the land is cleared as we do a year or two 

 later. The soil is in a condition which has produced a certain type 

 of wild plant for years, and it must be greatly changed in its nature 

 before we can expect it to produce a good yield of ordinary cul- 

 tivated plants. We must have something to civilize the soil, to tame 

 it down, before we can expect our tame, civilized crops to feel at 

 home. 



We have one legume eminently fitted for this — the velvet bean. 

 It will do more than any other crop we have ever had to smother 

 the wild growth. It will furnish more humus than we can get from 

 any other crop. It is a rank-growing vine, and can be grown in 

 any part of the pine woods country. It has almost universal possi- 

 bilities, and will certainly grow in all of our cut-over pine region. 



It was in 1898 that the Department of Agriculture first called 

 attention to these beans as an agricultural product. They had been 

 grown for a great many years before that in Florida simply as an 

 ornamental vine ; but in 1898, in one of the publications, it was 

 mentioned as being a very desirable forage. At that time we knew 

 of only one variety — what is now known as the "Florida Velvet 

 Bean." That is seldom seen outside of Florida, and although it 



