SOYBEAN. Glycine hispida, Maxim. Leguminosec. Soja bean. Fig. 815.
The soybean is an annual leguminous plant, valu able as human and stock-food, and as a soil renovator. In botanical relationship and in appearance it is close to the cowpea. It is an erect, hairy plant, two to four and one-half feet high, branching freely, and of bush form. The leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets in size and shape resembling those of ordi nary beans and cowpeas. The small flowers, in clusters of two to five, are usually purplish or whitish. The seed-pods are short, one to two inches long, downy, usually cream-colored or whitish, and contain one to three seeds, usually two. The pods clustered on the main stems and main branches.
When mature, they split and drop the seeds. The seeds are generally roundish, in some varieties flat tish, and are without any indentation on the surface. The scar is long. In shape and size the soybean seed somewhat resembles that of the Canada pea or Marrowfat pea. The usual colors of the seed are cream or yellowish white, green, black, and shades of brown.
The soybean in the United States is used for the same purposes as the cowpea, and possesses the following advantages over it : (1) Being erect and without runners, the for age does not tangle.
(2) The seeds are removed by threshing and not by hand-picking, since the seeds usually do not split so easily in threshing.
(3) After falling on the ground, soybeans re main sound longer than cowpeas, thus giving a longer season for hogs to subsist on the field in the fall.
(4) Certain varieties of soybean mature earlier than cowpeas, and are thus better suited to the northern states.
(5) Soybeans give larger yield of grain than do cowpeas.
(6) The grain, or seed, is much more valuable for stock-feeding than that of the cowpea.
In general, in the North and West the soybean is preferable for grain and the cowpea for hay, but in the South both may be regarded as hay plants as well as grain plants. The soybean, how ever, is not usually considered as valuable as the cowpea as a hay or forage plant or for use as a catch-crop, since sometimes it is less productive of forage and has less adaptability to various condi tions such as wet or dry land, or poorly prepared seed-bed. Rabbits are also very fond of feeding on
the soybean and it is impracticable to plane. this crop in small fields in localities where this pest is common.
Geographical distribution.
The soybean is thought to be native of south eastern Asia. It is thought to be derived from the wild Glycine Soja of Japan, being itself not known in a wild form. It is grown extensively in China and Japan. The varieties differ widely in maturity, requiring 70 to MG days, thus per mitting different varieties to be grown through out the greater part of the United States, from Massachusetts and Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. The northern limit of cultivation of the soybean coincides nearly with that of corn.
Composition.
The following tables from Farmers Bulletin No. 58, of the United States Department of Agricul ture (compiled from various sources), give the composition and digestibility of the various kinds of forage from the soybean plant: From these tables it will be seen that all parts of the soybean plant are rich in nitrogen. The bay is similar in composition to cowpea hay. Soy bean seeds are much richer in protein and fat than the seeds of the cowpea.
Culture.
Soil.—The soybean is adapted to a wide range of soils, sandy to clay. In high latitudes a well-drained sandy or sandy loam soil is preferred, as hastening maturity. The crop is quite resistant to drought and yet able to grow in a soil that is rather wet.
Ordinarily, the fields should be plowed and harrowed and level or surface planting practiced.
Fertilizers.—In case fertilizer is used in quantity. it is desirable for it to be mixed with the soil without coming in immediate contact with the seed. For drilled soybeans, fertilizer should be applied in the drills. When fertilizers are needed, it will usually be advisable to apply both phosphate and potash, using, in the South, f r example, 200 or 300 pounds of high-grade aci 1 phosphate and 50 pounds of muriate or sulphate of potash per acre.