Cut-Over Pine Lands in the South. 
37 
winter feed. The cattle are held on the native pastures until 
the pastures give out and are then put on velvet-bean fields to hold 
them until grass comes in the spring. 
After the corn is harvested the beans are usually partly picked 
if the cattle are to be carried through the winter on a maintenance 
ration, but if cattle are to be fattened they are turned on fields from 
which no beans have been picked. The leaves remain on the vines 
for a considerable time and are eaten better by cattle after frost 
comes. The beans remain in the field about three months during the 
winter without shattering or damage from rains. In fact, after they 
have been softened by rains the cattle like them better. Beans 
which are trampled to the ground are utilized by following the cat- 
tle with hogs. The carrying capacity of the pasture varies con- 
siderably according to the yield of beans per acre, but it is usual 
Fig. lO.^Corn and velvet beans. Velvet beans make an excellent growth along with 
the corn. 
to allow from one-third to one-half an acre per head per month. It 
requires from 1 to 1J acres to carry a cow through the winter. 
At Collins 56 head of mature breeding cows and 22 head of mature 
native steers were turned on 10 acres of velvet-bean pasture Decem- 
ber 3, 1917. The pasture consisted of stalk, fields from which the 
corn had been snapped and velvet beans left unpicked. Ten acres 
of this field would have yielded 1.000 pounds or more of picked beans 
per acre, but the beans on the remainder of the field were scattering. 
The average yield of the entire field was estimated at 500 pounds an 
acre. The pasture was practically exhausted at the end of a 28-day 
period and hogs were left to clean up the remaining beans. Pas- 
