FARM Management in Lenawee county, mich. 31 



SOY BEANS. 



Apparently the soy bean crop has no special importance in the 

 agriculture of the area, except in the more sandy sections or on lands 

 where clover is grown with considerable difficulty. The area surveyed 

 is made up principally of the heavier types of land, and the results 

 of these investigations apply more especially to the heavy land con- 

 ditions of Lenawee County and counties to the north, west, and south- 

 west where these same conditions prevail. In these sections clover is 

 grown with a liigh degree of success and alfalfa is very successfully 

 grown on the farms where reasonable effort has been made. This leaves 

 little to be expected from the growing of soy beans and really permits 

 little demand for the crop in the agriculture of the section. The prin- 

 cipal uses to which soy beans can be put in this section are that of a 

 crop to be plowed under in a systematic plan of soil improvement, an 

 extra crop to be grown for winter feed for hogs, and a catch crop sown 

 in the corn at the last cultivation and pastured down by lambs during 

 the first part of the feeding season. Soy beans may also be used to 

 some extent as an emergency crop to supply hog pasture, but it 

 apparently has no place of importance as a regular part of the crop- 

 ping systems of the section. 



COWPEAS. 



As compared to soy beans,' cowpeas as a farm crop are even less 

 adapted to the agriculture of the area covered by this farm manage- 

 ment study. The only place here where cowpeas can serve a purpose 

 of any consequence is in the sandy sections. On the more sandy areas 

 this crop can be grown to good advantage, and, together with soy 

 beans, may to a great extent be used as a substitute for clover. Under 

 these conditions cowpeas may be made valuable as a crop to be 

 plowed under in the improvement of the soil. Another use which it 

 may serve on these sandy areas is that of cow pasture — a practice 

 which is carried out in other parts of southern Michigan. Aside from 

 a few such general uses, this crop should not be considered m the area 

 surveyed, especially not as a part of a regular and fixed rotation. 



OWNER AND TENANT FARMS COMPARED. 



Tenancy, though not abnormally developed, is nevertheless an im- 

 portant feature of the agriculture of Lenawee County. Of the 564 

 farm records taken, 300 were of owners, 90 were of owners who rented 

 land additional and 16 of owners, generally of advanced years, who 

 had curtailed their farm operations and were renting out a part of 

 their land. There were 158 strictly tenant farms, 33 of which were 

 cash rented, 120 half -share rented, and 5 one-third share rented. In 

 all there were two and one-half times as many owner-farms as there 

 were tenant farms. This probably represents about the true propor- 

 tion of owners and tenants for the region as a whole, since the farms 



