582 



SORGHUM 



SOYBEAN 



though it has been found possible to make sugar 

 of good quality from this plant. Until a strain 

 of greater sugar content than we now have is 

 developed and improved methods of handling the 

 juice are perfected, little sugar will be made from 

 this crop. 



Selecting and storing the seed. 



While the great bulk of the seed planted is not 

 selected at all, yet the time required to select ■ 

 seed-heads from stalks having desirable charac- 

 teristics is comparatively slight, and when only a 

 few acres are grown the yield and quality of the 

 crop can be materially increased with little trou- 

 ble. When the crop is grown on a large scale it is 

 a good plan to select seed enough to plant a few 

 acres and use the progeny of this selected seed for 

 planting the main crop the ensuing year. 



The heads should be removed when fully ripe ; 

 after they are well cured they may be threshed, or 

 stored without threshing. In either case the seed 

 should be kept in a dry place where it will not 

 heat or mold. In the South it is often necessary 

 to store in a tight box and treat with carbon bi- 

 sulfid or some other insecticide to prevent the de- 

 struction of the seed by weevils. The seed weighs 

 fifty to sixty pounds per bushel, according to the 

 proportion of hulls. 



Enemies. 



The sorghums are not often seriously affected 

 by insects or diseases. Chinch-bugs sometimes 

 cause trouble, especially when they migrate from 

 adjoining grain-fields. In some sections of the 

 South the green aphis attacks the growing parts 

 of the plants, but usually little damage is done. 

 Remedial measures are seldom necessary, other 

 than the avoidance of continuous cropping with 

 the sorghums on any given piece of land. 



The grain smut of sorghum (JPhaeelotheca diplo- 

 spora) and the whole-head smut (Phacelotheca rei- 

 liana) attack the plants, but the resulting damage 

 is usually comparatively slight. Both smuts can 

 be kept in check by rotation and by selecting the 

 seed ; the grain smut can be further held in check by 

 treating the seed with hot water, formalin, or any 

 of the other well-known smut remedies.. [See Index.] 



SOYBEAN. Glycine hispida, Maxim. Leguminosce. 

 Soja bean. Pig. 815. 



By /. F. Duggar. 



The soybean is an annual leguminous plant, valu- 

 able as human and stock-food, and as a soil renovator. 

 In botanical relationship and in appearance it is 

 close to the cowpea. It is an erect, hairy plant, two 

 to four and one-half feet high, branching freely, 

 and of bush form. The leaves are trifoliate, the 

 leaflets in size and shape resembling those of ordi- 

 nary beans and cowpeas. The small flowers, in 

 clusters of two to five, are usually purplish or 

 whitish. The seed-pods are short, one to two inches 

 I'ong, downy, usually cream-colored or whitish, and 

 contain one to three seeds, usually two. The pods 

 are clustered on the main stems and main branches. 



When mature, they split and drop the seeds. The 

 seeds are generally roundish, in some varieties flat- 

 tish, and are without.any indentation on the surface. 

 The scar is long. In shape and size the soybean 

 seed somewhat resembles that of the Canada pea 

 or Marrowfat pea. The usual colors of the seed 



Fig. 815. Soybean {Glycine hispida). 



are cream or yellowish white, green, black, and 

 shades of brown. 



The soybean in the United States is used for the 

 same purposes as the cowpea, and possesses the 

 following advantages over it : 



(1) Being erect and without runners, the for- 

 age does not tangle. 



(2) The seeds are removed by threshing and not 

 by hand-picking, since the seeds usually do not 

 split so easily in threshing. 



(3) After falling on the ground, soybeans re- 

 main sound longer than cowpeas, thus giving a 

 longer season for hogs to subsist on the field in 

 the fall. 



(4) Certain varieties of soybean mature earlier 

 than cowpeas, and are thus better suited to the 

 northern states. 



(5) Soybeans give larger yield of grain than do 

 cowpeas. 



(6) The grain, or seed, is much more valuable 

 for stock-feeding than that of the cowpea. 



In general, in the North and West the soybean 

 is preferable for grain and the cowpea for hay, 

 but in the South both may be regarded as hay 

 plants as well as grain plants. The soybean, how- 

 ever, is not usually considered as valuable as the 

 cowpea as a hay or forage plant or for use as a 

 catch-crop, since sometimes it is less productive of 

 forage and has less adaptability to various condi- 

 tions such as wet or dry land, or poorly prepared 

 seed-bed. Rabbits are also very fond of feeding on 

 the soybean and it is impracticable to plant- this 



