LEGUMES AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS 307 



tral States. The soy bean shows a great variety of form and 

 habit of growth. Some varieties are raised exclusively for 

 the bean, and these forms shed the most of their foliage 

 before the beans are mature. Some of these dwarf forms do 

 not stand higher than 8 to lo inches. Other varieties are better 

 adapted as forage plants and attain a height of 2 or 3 feet, 

 some of them showing a trailing habit. In tropical countries 

 the soy bean is raised chiefly for the production of soy-bean 

 oil and soya sauce. The crop is widely cultivated by the 

 Japanese in Hawaii, but the great local demand for soy beans 

 by the soya sauce factories makes it necessary to import an 

 additional 2,500,000 pounds of the beans annually. The dwarf 

 early-maturing varieties produce from 600 to 1,000 pounds of 

 beans per acre and the yield of the late, tall varieties is nearly 

 twice as great. 



The velvet bean is one of the favorite leguminous crops 

 of the Tropics, several varieties being used particularly as a 

 green manure crop. The velvet bean is now referred to the 

 genus Stizolobium. In Hawaii a number of varieties of the 

 velvet bean have proved to be satisfactory, particularly the 

 Florida velvet bean, the Mauritius or Bengal bean, and the 

 Lyon velvet bean. The last named variety comes from the 

 Philippines, where the beans are much used as human food. 

 They resemble Lima beans in appearance and flavor. As a 

 green manuring crop the Lyon velvet bean has given perhaps 

 the best results. It matures in about 165 days from planting 

 and yields an immense crop of green material for plowing 

 under. The crop is also used as a green feed or hay for 

 cattle. It is little affected by serious insect pests. 



In tropical countries, as in northern climates, alfalfa is 

 one of the most important herbaceous legumes. It occupies 

 a peculiarly important place in agriculture in the Tropics for 

 the reason that the ordinary clovers, such as white, red, and 

 alsike clovers, do not thrive well in tropical countries except 

 at high altitudes. All the well known varieties of alfalfa 



