Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-05-21

long as there is an abundant supply
of fresh, bright cotton seed meal
available.
AN INTERESTED CORRESPONDENT
A L. r., Cordele, Ga. writes: viii
you please answer the following for one
who. enjoys all that is for the uplift of
the farmer?
have a field in oats that 1 wish to
plant to Mammoth Yellow soy beans
and white Spanish peanuts for hogs.
When should they each be planted to be
ready for pasture at the same time?
What is the fertilizing value of velvet
beans, pea vines. and crab grass and
corn stalks mixed when plowed under?
1 see so many burning these crops THAT
wish to know the loss.
1t is a pleasure to give information
to one who thoroughly enjoys farming
and is actively engaged in the develop
ment of rural conditions. Soy beans
may be planted from now until the mid
die CT July. depending of course a good
deal on the variety selected. Some of
the earliest maturing varieties grown
i'm north Georgia will ripen in 80 days.
The Mammoth yellow, however, is a
long season variety, and will require
from 12O to 40 days to mature. In
other words, if planted at the same
time Spanish peanuts. the two
should be ready for grazing at about
the same time. The Spanish peanuts
may be saved for grazing until after
the soy beans have been eaten out by
the hogs. The reason for this is found
in the fact that the peanuts will not
decay in the ground. whereas, the beans
when they reach a certain stage open
their pods and scatter the seed on the
ground. You should begin grazing the
beans as soon as they are in the early
dough stage. Plant the beans in drills
about "a inches apart to three feet.
On rich land closer planting is advis-
able than on thin land. Plant very
much as you would cowpeas. You may
of course SOW the beans by means Of
grain drill just as peas are often
planted. More seed is required by this
method. however. and we do not think
the yield of grain will be as large as
where planted in drills. You will find
the Mammoth Yellow one of the most
prolific varieties to grow; at least this
has proven to be the case in our ex-
perience.
Velvet beans are chiefly valuable
from the fact that they are a legume
and will gather nitrogen from the air
and store it in the leaves, stems and
roots. The nitrogen is chiefly found
in the leaves. Presumably, velvet beans
will gather from 75 to $50 pounds Of
nitrogen per acre. though the amount
depends much on the degree of inocula-
/ ton found in the soil and on the char
acter of growth made by the crop. An
unusually heavy growth will naturally
gather and store more nitrogen than
| 4 light growth. The chances are that
velvet beans when ready to pillow under
will contain from 5000 to 5000 pounds
of water for each 1000 pounds of cured
hay obtained from the crop. There
1 would not be a great variation in the
amount of plant food stored in the soil
/ BY velvet beans as compared with cow
peas.
Crab grass and corn stalks mixed
with other grasses do not supply the
soil with anything like as much nitro
gen as a leguminous crop since they
have no power Of gathering nitrogen
from the air. On very thin soil and in
your section of the state. we would
be disposed to recommend the velvet
bean as the best for soil building, fol-
lowed by the cowpeas and the soy bean.