LEGUMES FOR FORAGE AND GRAIN 309 



centrates. They may be fed to all classes of live stock, 

 usually being ground and fed in combination with other 

 seeds. 



314. Soy beans, because of their erect growth, are 

 more easily handled as hay than are cowpeas. The hay, 

 to be of the best quality, must be handled in such a way 

 as to retain as many of the leaves as possible, since the 

 greater part of the nutrients is carried in them. Soy 

 bean hay of good quality compares favorably in feeding 

 value with alfalfa hay. Soy beans, hold an important 

 place as a soiling crop, since they furnish forage in late 

 summer or early fall when the pasture is shortest. Some- 

 times they are fed with some non-leguminous forage crop, 

 such as millet or sorghum, to furnish protein in the ration. 

 Frequently soy beans are grown for the silo, but experi- 

 ence has shown that while they alone do not make good 

 silage, in combination with corn they make a desirable 

 mixture for this purpose. Silage made from soy beans 

 alone, when fed to dairy cows, imparts a disagreeable 

 odor to the milk. When mixed with corn, at the rate of 

 2 tons of corn and 1 ton of soy beans, this objection is 

 overcome, and the feeding value of the silage is increased 

 over that of silage made from corn alone. Soy beans are 

 not well adapted for pasture and are not often grown for 

 this purpose. Sometimes they are grown for hog pasture, 

 but they are not as good for this purpose as is rape. Hogs 

 are often turned into the field after the crop is harvested 

 to gather the shattered beans, and sometimes they are 

 allowed to gather the entire crop. As a green manure 

 crop, soy beans are about equal to clover in the amount 

 of nitrogen added to the soil if the entire crop is plowed 

 under. If only the roots and stubble are considered, soy 

 beans add only about one-sixth as much nitrogen as the 



