The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-24
Sofa Beans.


''Make hay while the sun shines" is
| certainly wise old proverb, and the
good man who is ''merciful to his beast, :"
and the good woman who is merciful to
her family, will spare no pains to provide
not only hay but all sorts of food that
will insure fat cows and milk and butter
in abundance, says a writer in Home and
Farm Now is the season to plant most
of the plants used for forage, and among
all that I have seen tried | think SOFA
| beans not only yield more largely but are
more fattening and nutritious than any
other A peck of beans and vines just as
they are pulled from the ground will
make a COW give third more milk than
peck of wheat bran or ship stuff, which
had heretofore found the best food for
dairy purposes. After they are dried it
is best to cut them up with feed-cutter
and moisten with warm water. They do
not require any addition of bran or meal
as they are sufficiently rich without, and
if any is added it should only be in small
quantities Horses also eat them with
relish, and they are most excellent for
fattening hogs, but it is with cows that
they produce the most marked results.
The cultivation is very simple, too, as
they do not demand an especially rich
soil, though, of course, like all other
plants, they thrive better in such circum-
stances, but if they are kept free from
weeds and the soil around them is fire.
quently stirred they will yield astonish-
ingly in land of moderate strength. If
you can make a speciality of them, it is
best to SOW them broadcast, at the rate of
half bushel to the acre, and as they
have stiff stalk which holds the pods off
the ground they do not require props.
They are more economical to gather than
any other field pea, as they can be cut
stalk and all, and it is best to feed them cut
up in this, though after they are dry the
beans can easily be beaten out on tight
floor A separate lot should be sOwn in a
small enclosed place into which the kill
ing hogs should be turned after they
ripen, and you will find that you will
need only a small amount of corn to fatten
them If it is not convenient to make a
separate crop of the beans, they can be
sowed in the hills with corn at the rate
of a gallon to an acre. In this case they
should receive more working than is
usually given to corn, though really not
more than it ought to have, if it did not
amount to more expense than could be
bestowed on large crop
While on the subject of feed for cows l
must say that any farmer who will buy
rotary feed cutter V i'll find it twice as
easy to prepare their food as with an old
fashioned feed cutter. 1t feeds itself and
is so easy TO TURN IndU cnllu can manage
it. and it cuts the food so fine that what
ever is left can be added to the manure
pile This cutter fills the same place in
the barn as a cooking stove does in the
kitchen or sewing machine in the house,
and lightens the burden of labor Just as
much. | know that horsepower is even
more efficient but it costs a great deal
more, which is an item of consideration
on most farms. Cows like food cut up
fine and moistened with warm water, and
scarcely any other preparation can be
given them that costs as little as these
beans when raised on ones own land.