VELVET BEAN 



VELVET BEAN 



657 



Place in the rotation. — When grown and fed on 

 the land or plowed back into the soil, the velvet 

 bean makes an excellent preparation for corn, 

 cotton and sugar-cane. The nitrogen and humus 

 supplied are of great value and the mechanical 

 condition of the soil is vastly improved. 



The only crop in conjunction with which the 

 velvet bean may be planted to advantage is corn. 

 Planted at the same time or after the corn, it 

 usually does not begin to run until the latter is 

 well grown. In the rotation, the velvet beans 

 must generally be given the ground for one whole 

 season. 



Two- or four-year rotations with corn and cotton 

 may be arranged as follows: Two-year. — (1) corn 

 and velvet beans; (2) cotton. Pour-year. — (1) 

 corn; (2) velvet beans; (3) cotton; (4) velvet 

 beans. 



Sviseqibent care. — After the beans are up, the 

 ground should be cultivated two or three times to 

 conserve moisture and keep down the weeds until 

 the plants are well started. Then the vines grow 

 rapidly, soon shade the ground and smother out 

 all weeds and other vegetation that may attempt 

 to grow. In a well-conducted rotation, the crop 

 may be made to play no mean part in weed 

 eradication. In fact, the vines take possession of 

 and clamber over almost anything that may be 

 growing on the land, and shrubs and small trees 

 are often destroyed. The introduction of a bush 

 variety would be a decided improvement in many 

 ways. 



For seed production. — To secure a good crop of 

 seed in the extreme South, the crop should be 

 planted not later than the third week in April. 

 Larger quantities of seed will be secured if the 

 vines are given something to run on. An excellent 

 method is to plant them with corn and cut the 

 corn just below the bottom ear as soon as it is 

 matured, leaving the lower part of the stalks as a 

 support. It is not best to leave the whole length 

 of the corn-stalks,' as the 

 vines climb over them 

 and the weight of the 

 growing pods will at last 

 break them down. An- 

 other method which may 

 be used in a limited way 

 is to set small poles along 

 the rows, ten or twelve 

 feet high. The vines may 

 be cut around the poles 

 and these lifted with 

 the vines attached in 

 harvesting. 



Harvesting. — From the 

 nature of the growth, 

 it can readily be understood that the velvet bean 

 crop is one which cannot easily be converted into 

 hay. It is best cut by means of a front-cut mowing 

 machine. Each swath should be turned back with 

 forks before the next one is cut. The best time to 

 cut is when the pods are well formed, but before 

 the beans begin to swell. The hay may be cured 

 by the methods ordinarily used for cowpea hay. 



B42 



Because of the difficulties of harvesting, many 

 persons prefer to turn the cattle and hogs into the 

 field and allow them to graze. In the mild fall and 

 winter climate of the South this is a splendid way 



Fig. 889. Velvet beans. 

 Natural size. 



Fig. 890. Velvet beans in Florida, with corn for support 

 of Tines. 



to handle the crop, and meat may be produced at 

 a very low cost by this method. 



Yield. 



At the end of the growing season the ground is 

 covered with a tangled mass of vines two or three 

 feet deep. At a conservative estimate, the weight 

 of green material will reach ten tons and the 

 weight of dry hay three to four tons per acre. 

 Under favorable conditions, a good yield of pods 

 is eighty bushels, giving about forty bushels, or 

 thereabouts, of shelled beans. 



As a stock-feed. — The velvet bean is rich in pro- 

 tein, and good hay contains about 8 per cent of 

 protein with a nutritive ration of 1 to 6. Meal 

 may be made from the beans and pods ground 

 together. This meal contains 17 per cent of pro- 

 tein and 4J to 6 per cent of fat, while meal made 

 from the beans alone contains 22.6 per cent of pro- 

 tein and 6.6 per cent of fat. Both of these have 

 been placed on the market in a limited way. As 

 will be noted from the above, the hay in itself is 

 a fairly well-balanced ration. The meal from either 

 beans or beans and pods together must be classed 

 with the concentrated foods, and should not be fed 

 without other more bulky substances having a 

 wider nutritive ratio. 



As a cover-crop. — Velvet beans have been used 

 extensively as a cover-crop in orange, peach and 

 pecan orchards. On poor lands they are admirably 

 adapted for this purpose, as they collect large 

 amounts of nitrogen and provide a great quantity 

 of vegetable matter. Only a narrow space between 

 the tree rows should be planted and the plants must 

 be watched to prevent their climbing into and 

 injuring the trees. Trees are frequently badly 

 broken if this precaution is neglected. 



As a soil renovator. — As a soil renovator, the 

 velvet bean, for the regions in which it may be 

 grown, has few equals and no superiors. It is not 

 attacked by the root-knot producing nematodes. 



