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 high 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 in 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 neveriheless 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 
