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Growing Soy Beans in Indiana 
What We Have Learned About the Crop 
AY. SEED OR FORAGE.—On page 07 there is 
some discussion regarding the possibility of 
growing Soy beans with corn for silage purposes 
and the adaptation of varieties for that purpose and 
for hay. The writer has had a number of years’ 
experience in growing this valuable legume crop for 
hay, for seed and for silage, and the following 
observations may be of interest. Here in Central 
Indiana, where a considerable part of the corn crop 
is harvested by turning hogs into the fields about 
September 10, when the corn is beginning to dent, 
we have found Soy beans drilled in the row or 
dropped in the hill at the time of corn planting to 
add one-third to the feeding value of the acreage. 
VARIETIES USED.—White Cap Yellow Dent or 
Ninety Day Yellow corn is used for the earliest field 
intended for hogging, and Early Brown or Medium 
Yellow (Ito San) beans are planted together. These 
varieties have about the same season, maturing in 
about 1*5 days, and earlier than the Medium Green 
mentioned. The corn is planted to obtain the usual 
stand as grown alone, and an additional 15 pounds 
of beans is drilled to the acre, either through the 
bean attachment of the planter or through the fer¬ 
tilizer boxes. If drilled through the fertilizer at¬ 
tachment, twice the quantity of dry soil should be 
used to increase the bulk to prevent cracking the 
beans, or one-tliird soil, one-third fertilizer and 
Ike RURAL NEW-YORKER 
them planted to mature before Winter. Sometimes 
the corn cultivations interfere, so that the beans are 
not planted before June 10. They are disked in 
broadcast on a well-prepared seed bed which lias 
been well cultivated several times to kill the surface 
weed seed, or they may be drilled in solid with a 
wheat drill at the rate of three to five pecks to the 
acre. They should be cultivated two or three times 
after they are a few inches high, choosing warm, 
dry afternoons when the plants are limp. They will 
stand an astonishing amount of punishment in this 
condition, and they must have this cultivation to 
keep down the grass and weeds until they shade the 
ground. After that they will smother out any kind 
of growth. A weeder or light harrow is used for 
this work; here we have what is known as a rotary 
hoe. a wheeled, two-horse implement with fine teeth, 
which picks up a bit of the surface soil, but does 
not disturb the deeper rooting Soy. It is adjustable 
to depth, and a boy and team can go over 15 or 20 
acres a day. 
CUTTING THE HAY.—'For a hay crop, they are 
cut with a mower after the pods are well filled and 
the leaves begin to turn yellow. For seed they are 
cut in the forenoons, after the pods have turned 
somewhat and the leaves have begun to droop. Some 
growers use a mower with a side delivery attach¬ 
ment. while others use the regular grain binder set 
as low as possible, and setting the bundles up in 
small shocks. The taller varieties of Soy beans, if 
intended for seed, possibly yield better drilled in 
Soil Treatment After Plowing 
Which is better: To plow land, harrow it at once, 
then let it lie, or plow, roll, let lie awhile and harrow 
just before crop is put in? My land is medium clay 
loam, level. f. i>. k. 
Derby. N. Y. 
ROM our own experience this would vary with 
the condition and character of the soil and the 
crop to be seeded. We have found it advisable to roll 
or pack the soil after plowing under a cover crop or 
a sod. Unless this is done, especially in dry, windy 
weather, the air works into the open soil and dries 
it out. or causes the green organic matter to ferment. 
We have known several cases where green rye was 
plowed under and left without rolling or packing. 
The corn crop following it was a failure, and farmers 
claimed that the rye poisoned the soil. When the 
rye was crushed down with a roller after plowing 
there was no trouble. On ordinary land, -where no 
cover crop is plowed under, we prefer to harrow at 
once and let the laud stand until planting or seeding. 
This holds moisture in the soil, and does not pack the 
land too hard. Where land is well rilled with or¬ 
ganic matter it will stand far more packing. At the 
time of planting or seeding we should harrow the 
land once more and then plant. If the soil seems 
too dry it will often be a good plan to roll after 
planting* This would have some effect in bringing 
the water up through the soil and holding it at the 
surface. Under some conditions this would leave a 
crust on top of the soil, and if the dry weather con- 
Cultivutiny a Tin-Acre Field of Holla brook No// Keans Twenty Inches Fi<j. 70. 
one-tliird beans may be stirred together. All fer¬ 
tilizer would injure germination of the beans. If 
the beans are dropped in the hill with the bean 
attachment, eight pounds to the acre is sufficient. If 
drilled, we like to plant the corn and beans in a 
shallow furrow, using plates on the planter runners 
to edge out the soil, that the rows may be filleu 
in with harrow or cultivator, and thus kept free 
from grass and weeds. 
LATER SEEDING.—For a field for later hogging, 
we use Reed's Yellow Dent or Johnson County White 
corn and the llollybrook variety of Soy, which 
requires It* or 15 days longer to mature than Early 
Brown. It is a cream-colored bean, grows quite 
upright to a height of three feet, and retains the 
beans well in the pod. even when remaining in the 
field all Winter. We regard this as a very valuable 
characteristic, some varieties popping out as soon as 
ripened. Our surplus stock and brood sows are now 
doing nicely, pasturing a husked field of 15 acres, 
and require no other ration. If the com is to be 
harvested J’or silage or for fodder, a variety of Soy 
growing at least 50 inches high should be used, as 
the low-growing varieties will drop out of the corn 
bundle in handling. If the corn and beaus are grown 
in separate plots, as is sometimes done, and mixed 
at the cutter at the rate of one load of beans to two 
or three loads of corn, the Early Brown or Medium 
Yellow can be used and mowed a day or two before 
siloing. 
DRILLING AND CULTIVATION.—For hay or 
seed, these two varieties and llollybrook are used, 
the variety depending on the time that one can get 
tliree-foot rows at the rate of 20 pounds per acre 
and cultivated two or three times. See Fig. 70, a 
10-acre field of llollybrook, planted June 30: photo¬ 
graph taken August 10. Height 20 inches. 
THRASHING AND YIELD.—Thrashing is done 
with the ordinary grain separator, but with very 
few concave teeth left in to break up the stiff bean 
stems, which would otherwise clog the riddles, and 
reducing the speed of the cylinder as much as pos¬ 
sible. The beans should l>e spread out after thrash¬ 
ing. to air and dry thoroughly: they heat very 
readily stored in bulk. The yield varies from eight 
to 30 bushels per acre, depending on the variety, 
soil, season and time of planting. Heavy seed yields 
are often secured on soils of medium fertility, and 
the benefits of the legume are very marked on suc¬ 
ceeding crops. Inoculation, either by the soil or 
liquid culture method, should always be given if 
planting on land which has never grown the crop. 
Well inoculated plants, if carefully lifted, some¬ 
times show nodules as large as a hickory nut, and 
we have found nodules developing on the roots 
within two weeks of sprouting. An ideal seed bed 
for wheat or rye is furnished without further labor, 
after harvesting Soys, the grain being drilled in the 
low-cut stubble, which serves to hold the soil and 
snow from blowing through the Winter. We have 
found it safe to plant beans as early as field corn; 
they seem equally hardy, and a few light frosts in 
the Fall do no noticeable damage to the rqieuiug 
crop except that the leaves begin to fall within a 
few days. w. a. withrow. 
Montgomery Co., lud. 
tinned this should be broken up by a weeder or light 
harrow before the plants get through the ground. 
Some farmers on light soils follow a regular system 
of rolling after planting and then breaking up the 
resulting crust with a harrow. 
Dogs and Sheep 
SINCE the Foods and Markets Department at Albany 
has controlled the licensing of dogs, we have had over 
100 unlicensed dogs in this town last year, and dogs 
did over $1,000 worth of damage to the docks of the 
town, and the flocks that have not been chased are very 
few. The department does not seem competent to han¬ 
dle the situation. I have had four sheep and 11 lambs 
killed, and one neighbor had 25 killed out of 27 ; another 
had 25 killed, 15 badly bitten out of 40, besides lots of 
others not mentioned. w. R. p. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
• 
IKE practically every other agricultural law en¬ 
acted at Albany during the last quarter of a cen¬ 
tury, the dog law has its jokers ami its opportunities 
for administrators to avoid efficient enforcement. 
The laws are enacted to appease demands at the 
time, but not to correct the abuses. When farmers 
get to a point where they will not accept these sub¬ 
terfuges, and insist on straight, honest measures in 
language that they can themselves understand, and 
demand men who will not splir hairs over the en¬ 
forcement of them, we will get some benefit from 
agricultural laws. 
The British Board of Agriculture offers uitrate of 
soda to English farmers at $07 per tou. The Govern¬ 
ment price in this country is $S1. 
