The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-09
sojan Beans, Valuable Forage Crop
 for Sowing Now


 It cannot be too often repeated that southern farmers need to increase both the acreage and the variety of forage plants. There is no one forage plant superior under all conditions to all others. Alfalfa comes nearest to full nliing this requirement. on soils that are thoroughly congenial to it. Yet for many of the sandy soils of the South # must take q position lower tions under which crimson clover may be preferable to vetch, for example. when the price of vetch seed rules as high as it did a few years ago.
 We have such treasure in the cow pea in It's scores oS varieties that we at the South have been inclined to think that we needed nothing more in the way of summer growing forage plant The cowpea can scarcely be too highly extolled as a hay plant and fer tilixer, But there Is room for other forage plants of the same class but diff fering in some respects from the cow pea In nearly every quality where the cowpea Is weak or deficient the soy bean Is strong. though inferior in some other respects to the cowpea-
 For example, the cowpea often dis appoints us as plant for hogs to graxe on in the fall by reason of it's
 
 and seed. The soy bean Is not suscep- tible to any disease of this kind. so Tar as the writer has observed. Hence At can be counted on to afford a crop for hogs to graze on throughout the fall. It is true that after rlpening, soy bean pods burst opena.pat the seed re- main sound for a fShger time after falling on the ground than do cow peas.
 Another point of superiority con- sists in the ease with which the. seed of soy beans are harvested No one picks soy beans. Instead the plants when nearly mature are moved, raked and run through threshing machine. 1t is true that the bunch varieties of cowpeas can sometimes be handled in the same way, except that the seed split when passed through the thresh- ing machine. However, In tests at the Alabama Experiment Station we have found that this difficulty can be overcome and the splitting of the peas avoided by passing the pea vines through a shredder.
 In the saving of the hay there Is also an advantage in favor of the soy bean. This is an erect bushy plant. and hence there is no tangling of run ners.
 In our experience it has seemed that soy bean hay sheds water better than COW pea hay and is easier to cure in unfayorable weather. Some few farm CTS report using the self binder in har- vesting soy bean hay. The writer does not understand how 1t is possible thus to handle soy bean plants green enough to make the best hay without the oc- rurrence of mould in the interior of the bundle.
 Soy beans are useful for all classes of livestock, for feeding green. for hay and for use as a very rich grain food. of nearly the same composition as that richest of foodstuffs, cotton seed meal. but free from the injurious effects of cotton seed meal on hogs. very young calves. etc. On prairie land. where there Is a tendency for cowpeas to run to vine at the expense of seed produc- ton, soy beans fruit abundantly.
 While we have usually succeeded with soy beans without inocculation. we would for the present advise any parties planting this crop for the first time to inocculate the seed with mate rial which may be obtained free from the United States Department of Agri- culture, either directly or through the writer.
 About half a bushel of seed should be provided for every acre of land to be planted. The seed should be drill ed and after being thinned one plant should stand at distances of three to six inches for hay or at double that