1909. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
103 
SOY BEANS IN OHIO. 
Soy beans are grown on Woodland Farm for 
sheep feed, and ordinarily wc use only the grain. 
We have been growing these for quite a good many 
years, and by their use we have practically eliminated 
both bran and oil meal from our feeding rations for 
our purebred sheep. We know of no grain which 
will quite take the place of these beans. Sheep love 
them as dearly as they do corn itself, and they thrive 
on them amazingly. The writer believes that he put 
as large a gain on a bunch of sheep one time as has 
ever been accomplished in the same length of time 
by sheep men having many times as much skill as 
he has. It may sound unreasonable, but on three or 
four animals, in two weeks’ time, I put a gain of 
about 10 pounds each. Whether this is remarkable 
or not, I am very positive that I would not be will¬ 
ing to do without Soy beans for anything. The 
young lambs thrive on them as on no other combina¬ 
tion of feeds that I have ever tried. In fact, it is 
necessary to use a little caution, or they may be 
forced too rapidly during their early months for their 
own good later on, as I know from one unfortunate 
experience that I had. Soy beans actually analyze 
practically as rich in protein as oil meal itself, and 
they are very much more greedily eaten. When the 
season is favorable, and there is not too much rain 
after thrashing the beans, our sheep eat the pods 
and dried stalks ‘that have been thrashed quite 
greedily, and we thus get the benefit of both the 
grain and the forage. 
Some of our neighbors 
feed these beans with¬ 
out thrashing, simply 
cutting them and feed¬ 
ing stalks and beans at 
the same time. If this 
is carefully done, it 
may be a better method 
than our own of 
thrashing them. ’ From 
o u r own experience, 
ranging over a good 
many years, we feel 
confident that there are 
thousands of farmers 
who, if they once grew 
these beans, would like 
them so well that they 
would not willingly 
discard them. 
Personally I know 
that horses love the 
beans, either the for¬ 
age or the grain, but 
whether there is dan¬ 
ger in feeding them or 
not I cannot say. We 
grow ours exclusively 
for feeding sheep, and 
we find no danger at 
all in feeding them. 
We do not grind for 
sheep, but I should 
think it would be nec¬ 
essary to grind them for horses. This bean is 
practically as rich in protein as oil meal, and I 
should think it \yould be necessary to feed limited 
amounts of it, just as it would of oil meal. Prob¬ 
ably the forage would be safe to feed in any 
amount, and it would be comparable to Alfalfa hay 
itself. 
Regarding the method of growing, we plant these 
immediately after corn planting in drills just as nar¬ 
row as possible and still cultivate. The closer the 
drills are, the larger the yield of both forage and 
grain you will get. You can probably cultivate about 
28-inch rows satisfactorily; that is about the closest 
we are able to handle. Use either a grain drill or 
a corn planter, and arrange the plates to drop about 
one seed every two inches; then cultivate about the 
same as you would corn. Do not harrow or touch 
them until they are through the ground, as there is 
great danger of ruining the crop by breaking off the 
tender cotyledons. They are more or less difficult to 
harvest, especially the old varieties. Probably a 
bean harvester or else hand-pulling is the best for the 
old varieties when harvesting for grain. We have 
some new varieties which are not for sale as yet, 
which grow erect, and may be easily harvested with 
mowing machine. The old varieties are inclined to 
trail on the ground a little, and even when they do 
not, they frequently have the pods so close to the 
ground, that many beans will be wasted when trying 
to mow them with the mowing machine. Great care 
must also be used to handle them only when the 
dew is on; for this reason we work only a few 
hours in the morning. 
We let them get just ripe enough. If they become 
too ripe, the pods will shatter, and much grain will 
be lost. If cut too soon, the yield is diminished, 
and there will be some soft beans that will not ger¬ 
minate for seed, and that might possibly heat on 
account of too much moisture content. It takes a 
little experience to learn just how to harvest them, 
but we watch, and usually a few days after the 
leaves fall, we go to work harvesting, place them 
in piles for a few days, and then thrash them with a 
bean huller if obtainable, but if not, with an ordi¬ 
nary thrashing machine with the concaves removed. 
Ohio. _ CHAS. B. WING. 
STAND BY THE COWS. 
Business Methods in the Dairy. 
In explanation of my article published some time 
ago in The R. N.-Y., “That Awful Feed Bill,” I 
want to say that I had no idea of advocating the 
raising of crops to sell from the dairy farm. My 
idea was that we might by better management raise 
more, if not all of the feed for our cows, and 
I do firmly believe that no better use of grain can 
be made than to feed it to the right kind of dairy 
cows. P. W. C., in commenting on my article, 
estimates that my cows should bring in gross re¬ 
ceipts of $60 each. I will give P. W. C. another 
guess, for I cannot feed my cows for $G0 each 
per year, charging them full market price for every¬ 
thing they eat; yet I am making them pay. and 
making a bigger profit on money invested with 
more certainty of success than any line of farming 
that I am acquainted with. 
P. W. C. says that potatoes would bring $G0 
or $70 per acre, and cabbage $100 to $150. Well, 
they might, and then again— Well, a friend of mine 
in New Jersey recently wrote me “the potatoes 
were a complete failure this year, but the cows are 
gradually pulling us out of the debt that the try¬ 
ing to raise them got us into.” Cabbage has been 
a paying crop this year—where it has grown, but 
I know a man who hired two acres of land and 
put it into cabbage. Pie gave the crop the best 
of care, but did not have a cabbage for market 
this Fall, while last year there was a bumper crop, 
and a great many tons were fed to the cows because 
there was no other market for them. I am a be¬ 
liever in the dairy cow. and I do not want to 
“diversify” my farming in any way. My farm is 
devoted to the cow 365 days in the year, hut they 
are not the $60-a-year cows that produce “standard” 
milk for the New York market. 
The great trouble with the average New York 
State dairyman is that he does not give his business 
the careful attention that he ought to. Do not 
diversify your business. Concentrate it. Become a 
“cow crank” if you wish to succeed. The truck- 
farmer would go to the wall in a year if he prac¬ 
ticed the slack methods of the average dairyman. 
What would you think of a trucker who would plant 
some coarse late variety of potatoes for his early 
trade, or even go into the market and buy any kind 
of potatoes to plant? Yet T believe that the major¬ 
ity of the dairymen are keeping cows unfitted for the 
especial branch of dairying that they pursue. New 
York State is fast becoming a State of cities. I 
believe that about three-fourths of the inhabitants 
live in the towns and cities. The tillers of the soil 
have gone to “trucking” for the dwellers of the 
towns. Now, what is the reason that the “keepers 
of the herds” should not become “truckers” too? 
Stop making “standard” butter and cheese to com¬ 
pete with the West, for you cannot compete. The 
western dairyman will surely beat you if he has as 
good cows to work with. He has been handicapped 
by trying to run a dairy with beef cattle, and 
“general purpose” cattle, but he is looking for dairy 
cattle, and if you, Mr. Eastern Dairyman, are wise, 
you will produce them for him, and incidentally 
make him pay for them. Take example from the 
trucker and plant purebred seed. The gardener does 
not hesitate to pay several times the market value 
for a bushel of an improved sort of potatoes. Why 
should you hesitate to invest in a purebred bull or 
heifer? 
P. W. C. says that I may reasonably expect to 
produce $60 each from my cows, and he doubts that 
I can get the market price for my grain in feeding it. 
I am so afraid that I could not get the price out of the 
grain that I keep cows especially bred for making the 
finest quality of butter, and sell that butter to private 
customers who are willing to pay for a fine product. 
Incidentally these cows make about twice as much 
butter in a year as the “average” cows. Then there 
are others who want some of the “seed” of these 
cows, and the sales of 
this “seed” amounts to 
half as much as the 
butter sales. This puts 
an altogether different 
color on the picture, 
and keeps me from 
becoming a vegetable 
trucker. ^ 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
SILAGE TALK. 
In reply to the ques¬ 
tion asked on page 2, 
“Why cows give the 
greatest flow of milk 
in June when the grass 
is greenest and 1 e 
mature,” will say, be¬ 
cause most of the m 
freshen in the months 
of March and April, 
consequently woul d 
naturally give their 
largest flow on the 
fresh pasturage. They 
are not hampered, and 
if the pasture affords 
all the feed they want 
they, of course, eat all 
they want of what is 
considered by the best 
authorities a perfectly 
balanced ration. Again, 
weather conditions are more favorable; plenty of 
warm fresh air, with all the greatest germ destroyer 
known for the money—sunlight—wouldn’t these nat¬ 
ural surroundings make the cow better natured? 
But do all cows give the greatest flow of milk 
upon green pasturage? I would like to ask Ross 
Bros, why almost all of the 37 day official tests are 
made in the Winter and early Spring, before the 
cows get to pasture. To compare silage, whether 
from mature or immature corn, with pasture grass 
is absurd, for as I said before, pasture grass is. 
a perfect balanced ration and silage is not, and 
lacks a good deal of it. All corn contains more 
or less sugar. We know if we mix water with 
molasses and put in a warm place what the result 
is—vinegar. Consequently the softer and more im¬ 
mature your corn the more acid you have, especially 
if you summer your silage over for Fall use. The 
more mature your corn the less acid. We do not 
want corn so mature there is not enough moisture 
to preserve it, but just enough, and according to 
my mind that is when the corn is in the dough 
and commencing to dent. The variety that seems to 
make the ideal silage with us in Jefferson County, 
N. Y., is the Learning. It has large stalks, growing 
10 to 14 feet high on good soil, having one and 
two large ears with small cob. and when the ears are 
in their mature stage, the stalks are comparatively 
green and juicy, just enough to preserve, and not so 
much acid. 
Eureka corn has its good features, and I would not 
be doing Ross Bros, justice to remain silent in re¬ 
gard to them. The seed I received from them was 
the finest I ever saw. It came the quickest and 
most uniform and gave the hardiest plants from 
the time it appeared until past the tender period; 
should I ever be convinced that silage is better with¬ 
out ears. Eureka would be my corn. f. e. isham. 
Jefferson County, N. Y. 
BLACK PERCHERON MARES. Fig. 47. 
Maegouilette 62891 (51822) Ancolie 65241 (51811) 
