SOYBEAN 



SOYBEAN 



585 



latitude of Massachusetts only the early varieties 

 mature seed, and even in Kansas an early variety 

 is required. The standard variety in that state is 

 Early Yellow, which matures there in about three 

 months. Among the early varieties are Early Yel- 

 low, Ogema, Ito San and Early Brown, maturing 

 in seventy-iive to ninety days ; among the varie- 

 ties of medium maturity are Medium Black, 

 Medium Green, Green Samara and Olive Medium, 

 requiring a growing period of 95 to 110 days ; 

 among late varieties are Late or Mammoth Yel- 

 low, Flat Back, Tamarat Sukun, Nalrade, Asahi 

 and Best Green (United States Department of 

 Agriculture No. 4914). The Late Yellow matures in 

 the Gulf states in about 130 days, while the other 

 varieties of this late group are credited with a 

 growing period of 114 to 166 days, the last men- 

 tioned being the latest variety on record. Gener- 

 ally, the varieties of the second or medium-matur- 

 ing group have afforded the largest yield of for- 

 age in the northern states, especially the Medium 

 Green. In the Gulf states, the late varieties are 

 decidedly the most productive both of seed and of 

 forage. The standard variety here is the Late 

 Yellow, also known as Mammoth Yellow. Farther 

 north, either the early or the medium varieties are 

 used for seed production. 



Harvesting. — When soybeans are grown for seed, 

 it is necessary to harvest the plant as soon as the 

 earliest beans ripen ; otherwise the pods split and 

 shed the beans. Harvesting may be done by the 

 use of a self-binder, self-rake or reaper or by the 

 use of a corn knife. The small, early varieties are 

 too low for the use of binder or reaper, and are 

 best harvested for seed by a bean harvester or an 

 equivalent home-made implement, consisting of two 

 knives bolted to the shanks of a cultivator and 

 eloping backward, thus cutting the plants just be- 

 low the surface. If this is not available, the small 

 varieties must be pulled by hand. 



In cutting soybeans for hay, the mower is com- 

 monly used, but it is sometimes desirable to cut the 

 large varieties with a corn knife, in which case the 

 cut plants are placed in loose small bundles, which 

 are turned over just before the upper exposed 

 leaves become crisp. A few days later these loose 

 bundles or hands are piled in cocks, butts inward, 

 thus making a large cock with a rather open center. 

 The open center is then capped by the use of several 

 bundles placed with the leaves near the center of 

 the top of the shock. In cutting soybeans for hay, 

 they should be past full bloom and the seed-pods 

 formed, but not filled. For the silo the date of har- 

 vesting may be a little later, but before any seeds 

 have ripened. 



When soybeans are cut for hay with the mower, 

 the method of curing is the same as with other 

 legumes, — cowpeas, clover and the like. Soybeans 

 grown for seed should be cured with as little hand- 

 ling as possible, and this handling, if practicable, 

 should be in the early morning and late afternoon 

 to reduce shattering to a minimum. The plants 

 must not be bulked when damp. The threshing is 

 done with an ordinary grain thresher, with blank 

 concave. The seeds after threshing should not be 



bulked, as they heat easily, but should be kept in 

 thin layers to insure soundness. 



Yield. 



The yield of seed is usually twelve to twenty bush- 

 els. In Massachusetts and Wisconsin and on lime- 

 stone soil in Kentucky and Alabama, yields of more 

 than thirty-four bushels per acre have been secured. 

 At the Kansas Experiment Station, the average 

 for twelve years was twelve bushels of soybeans 

 as compared with 31.6 bushels of corn and 43.8 

 bushels of kafir, the soybeans, however, affording 

 the largest amount of protein per acre. On poor 

 soils in the Gulf states, yielding twenty bushels of 

 corn or less per acre, the yield of soybeans will 

 ordinarily equal or exceed that of shelled corn. The 

 usual yield of hay is one and one-half to three tons 

 per acre, and of green forage or silage six to ten 

 tons per acre. In both Connecticut and Massachu- 

 setts, the weight of soybean silage has been about 

 two-thirds that of corn silage from the same area. 



Uses. 



As a feed. — The soybean is valued as a grain or 

 seed crop for domestic animals, as a crop for the 

 silo, for hay, and in Asia as a food for mankind. 

 The seeds constitute the richest natural vegetable 

 food known, being nearly equal to cottonseed meal. 

 They have been fed with entire satisfaction to milch 

 cows, steers, calves, hogs, sheep, horses and poultry. 

 They should not be fed alone, but mixed with four 

 or five times their weight of corn, kafir, or other 

 starchy foods, thus taking the place of cottonseed 

 meal, linseed meal and gluten meal. When fed to 

 milch cows, the production of milk and butter has 

 been entirely satisfactory and the flavor of these 

 products faultless. The butter from soybeans is 

 somewhat softer than that from cottonseed meal. 

 For cattle and horses it is advisable to grind the 

 seed, but this is unnecessary for hogs and poultry. 

 For hogs, threshing is unnecessary, the entire ma- 

 ture plants being fed on tight floors. If the beans 

 begin to shatter in the field before it is practicable 

 to harvest the crop, hogs can be turned in to con- 

 sume them. The seeds thus shed remain sound on 

 the surface of the ground for several months, or 

 much longer than cowpeas. In a number of experi- 

 ments at the Kansas Experiment Station, a mix- 

 ture of a small proportion of soybeans in the food 

 for hogs resulted in a saving of about 30 per cent 

 in the total food required to produce a given 

 amount of growth. 



The soybean is a very useful crop for soiling, 

 a succession of plantings affording green food 

 throughout July and August. 



As silage. — The use of the soybean as silage gen- 

 erally has been satisfactory, especially when mixed 

 in the silo with twice its weight of corn silage. 

 When placed alone in the silo, there have been in- 

 stances of a strong objectionable silage which 

 imparted a disagreeable flavor to milk and butter, 

 even though the silage itself was sound. In Michi- 

 gan, 13,500 pounds of green soybean plants, placed 

 in the silo in September, had shrunk by the latter 

 part of the next April to 11,285 pounds. When one 



