The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-12-22
FLORIDA CONTROLS VELVET
BEAN SEED

The farmers of Florida control near
ly the whole supply of velvet bean
seed. Velvet beans are grown in
Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and
California, but in only limited areas
of some of these states do they ma
ture seed. Florida farmers should
therefore give more attention to pro-
ducing velvet bean seed.
Early this season the prospects
were good for a heavy crop of seed,
but the ravages of the caterpillar was
keenly felt in nearly all sections of
the state. AS a result, over a large
area of the state, the yield of velvet
bean seed has been reduced from so
| to IS per cent. In some localities the
crop has been completely destroyed.
This means that the supply of seed
for planting in the coming spring will
be far short of the demand.
The shortness of the crop of seed,
due to the attack of caterpillars,
means high prices for seed in the
coming year During the past five
years there has been no time when
velvet bean seed brought less than
$3.50 per bushel, and it has ranged
above So per bushel The price gen.
orally obtained for seed is sufficient
to give good profit on the invest
ment. The demand for seed usually
far exceeds the supply. From pres
ent indications the supply of seed
will be less than at any time during
the past five years, which means that
the price is likely to range high
Since the crop in many places has
been cut short, farmers should make
every effort possible to harvest all
available beans so as to supply the
demand for seed next spring. AT the
price that seed is likely to be, farm
ers cannot afford to use velvet beans
for feeding live stock. Feeding exper-
iments conducted at the experiment
station indicate that about two
pounds of velvet beans in the pod are
equal to one pound of bright cotton
seed meal for milk production. When
velvet bean seed will bring 81 per
bushel, it's price would be $6666 per
ton 1888 bushels to the tom. Should
it reach So per bushel, it would be
equivalent to 800 per ton for the
seed Aside from the value of the
seed, the hulls would be saved. The
bulls are equal to or better than cot
tonseed hulls for feeding. At present
prices they would be worth from $40
to SIS per ton. This should receive
careful consideration from every
farmer who may have velvet beans.
1t would be we'll for him to think
twice before allowing cattle or hogs
to harvest the crop. 1t will be more
profitable to sell the beans for seed
and buy a cheaper feed, such as cot
tonseed meal, for feeding live stock
AC COoL VI S1OWAAS LAC C1Op WILL
vary from S. to So per acre. This is
from 25 to so cents per bushel of seed,
including the preparation of the land,
the cost of seed, of planting and Of
cultivation. The cost of gathering
the crop will be from Is to 25 cents
per barrel. Zone barrel of beans in
the pod will shell out about one bush
ell of clean seed.)
The cost of threshing and saking
will depend upon the machine used,
whether a power machine or hand ma
chine. With a good power machine,
and if the beans are dry, from ten
to twenty bushels an hour can be run
through the machine and. cleaned up
in good shape. With a hand machine
two men will do we'll if they thresh
out ten to fifteen bushels a day.-Jno.
NJ. Scott, in Press Bulletin 17S, Agri-
cultural Experiment Station.