The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-05-08
MY EXPERIENCE WITH
SOY BEANS.
Is. e. Hostetter. Roseland, La, In
Louisiana Sum-

see by the various Southern farm
journals that there is a great deal of
inquiry throughout the South for some
crop to partially take the place OF
cotton.
Our experience with soy beans in
this section may be beneficial to those
who do not care to increase their corn
acreage, but wish to decrease their
cotton acreage, also those who now
have oats growing and wish to follow
with quick and highly nutritious feed
crop for beef, dairy, and hogs. Where
soy beans succeed oats it may be ad.
visable to use some commercial or
barn-yard fertilizer.
We are largely engaged in the cult.
walton Of vegetables during the winter
and early spring months, and require
crop for the summer months for the
maintenance of our farm animals. and
that will keep the land in good condi.
ton for the succeeding vegetable crop.
We plant some corn, but the corn
stubble is more or less In the way
when preparing the soil again for
garden seed, and where one wants a
maximum yield Of corn, there is too
little air and sunshine for the beans to
properly mature where they are plant
ed in the corn. Some advocate plant
ing every alternate row to corn, and
balance to soy beans; this may be an
advantage where the crop is harvested
with hogs, or intended for the silo.
Personally | prefer the single crop
system.
We have used the cow pea largely
for this work until the past two years,
when we discovered that the soy bean
can be used to better advantage. The
COW pea very seldom natures seed for
us, and frequently when it does, we are
unable to save it because Of excessive
rain, therefore it is necessary for US
to buy seed every year. With the soy
bean we can grow an abundance Of
seed, and after the beans are threshed,
the straw affords very good forage.
prof. Henry, in Feed and Feeding"
gives soy bean straw about the same
value as timothy hay). When soy
beans are once started they will with
stand more drouth, or excessive rain
than peas can. / have noticed 1t stated
by some writer's that it is necessary to
inoculate the soil for soy beans. We
have not found it necessary to do 30 In
our section; where they were properly
cultivated they made uniformly good
crop without incubation. Two years
ago l planted five acres to mammoth
yellow soy beans, on ground preceded
by cabbage, that threshed $50 bushels
of seed The nearest field of soy beans
the previous year was about one-fourth
of mile.
When ground is cleared of the vege-
table crop, we Immediately fatbreak,
and thoroughly harrow and drag the
freshly plowed ground in order to OBJ
tain a good mechanical condition of
the soil, and then wait, II necessary,
for the proper amount of moisture.
Land that was cropped during the win.
ter and spring months, and then broken
in May, dries out very quickly. In our
latitude we can plant the mammoth
yellow soy bean any time from the
first of June to the fifteenth of July Tor
earlier il you wish and mature good
crop of seed before frost. We drill in
rows three feet wide, " to Il bushels
per acre, covered not more than one
inch deep, on slightly raised bed
This to afford drainage, in case of ex.
cessive rains before the beans are well
up) AS soon as the plants appear we
start cultivation with fourteen-tooth
harrow, and if it is desirable to cult.
vate fat, no other implement is neces-
sary. We lay by with a wide sweep
run very shallow; this to afford drain.
age and give better support to the
plant. on account Of its heavy load Of
fruit and foliage.
Soy beans grow in bunch or bush
form two and one-half to four feet high.
To harvest for hay they may be cut
with a moving machine, when the
beans have formed in the pod, and are
about half grown. Then handle same
as COW peas for hay. To harvest for
seed they should stand until the pods
on the upper half of the plant turn
yellow, the lower half still being green,
and may be cut to advantage with a
self-rake reaper, II you wish to save
the beans from shattering.
We cut with moving machine and
bunch with rake, same as we do with
COW peas for hay, however; this wastes
about five per cent of the seed, unless
you follow with hogs. Rains do not