Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-09-09
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THE PEOPLES FORUM. Z

i e
rs Letters from the people on g
g current topics, not exceeding e
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e This is your column. Use e =
s. q youzWiIA avoiding yitupeEa-
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Il differ with Ms or our centribut- e
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ITO the Editor of the Democrat:
Allow me to tell the Farmers of
! Henderson County of my experience
with sofa beans.
Last year (19l4J / planted mann
10th yellow sofa beans in small
Iroastingearpat dropping the beans
in the drill between the corn, four to
six to the hill. When harvested
they were in roastineear and stood 4
to d feet high this being in fairly.
rich low land. After cutting and
curing I fed them to my pigs and
COW. was surprised one day when
Ethe pigs were fed ear cern prior to
receiving the bean hay and stopped.
eating corn until all of the bean
hay was gone. My cow was equally
fond ofsthem These observations
aroused my interest in sofa beans,
then l read every thing it was pos
fsible to get on the subject. The
following is some Of the informa-,
ton obtained.
1st That men of authority on
such subject are about equally di-
vided as to whether the sofa bean
4 or COW pea is the most valuable soil
Iimprover.
4 End. That Agricultural expert
ment stations have found that where
corn and sofa beans were planted
j year after year and heged off the
crop increases from 10 to 20 per
year.
Sd. That the cost of fattening
hogs. on sofa bean pasture including
all charges, by the Alabama expert
ment station in 1908 was as follows.
! On a J ration of corn. and Sofa
Beans pasture was $3.48 per 100
lbs ofgain, on a / ration Of corn and
!. tsoj4 beans pasture was 1922 Per
100 lbs of gain. The corn was
enlarged against the hogs at 20 c
: per bushel.
The sofa bean at So, SO per acre
for seed fertilizer and cultivation
plus So. 90 per acre interest at 6per
cent, and land valued at $3S,75 per
acre. -..r-F Il 3.
ii ,4th. That the SOFA beans sre the
, only feed crops that furnishes d bal
ance ration, this is when you feed
the beans and vines together. -
5th. That when cut in the bloom
for hay alone and fed to work stock
Abs less corn per day is required
for a 1000 ID work horse than when
tfead timothy hay.
81 9th. That there are cases on rec
ord, where Hampshire Brood Sows
have been kept in good breeding
! condition all winter on one ear Of
corn per day when fec, sofa bean
hay.
i Z. That 81 tons of sofa bean hay
has been produced per acre.
After learning the above, are
you surprised that / planted sofa
beans in all my corn this year.
That I gave a few seeds to one OF
i my neighbors to experiment with
that he is delighted with his expert
ment ThatjI firmly believe that
by planting sofa beans in corn and
for hog pasture, the feed and meat
problem of Henderson county would
be solved. That / am anxious
for as many Henderson county
| farmers as will come to my place in
West Hendersonville with in the
next two weeks before the beans
are cut, and see my beans, exam