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Show Soybeans: Farming's Poor Relation J Soybeans are used in the manufacture man-ufacture of a vast range of industrial indus-trial products including such unusual un-usual ones as the nutrients used to stimulate the organism that produces pro-duces streptomycin. Yet soybeans have always been the stepchild of American agriculture. agri-culture. Although they were first brought here from southeast Asia by missionaries some 150 years ago they were so little appreciated that as late as 1915 only 1,000 acres were grown. This was not so in the Orient where for centuries they j were used to add valuable protein pro-tein to a meager fare of rice and vegetables. It is not known Just when soybeans soy-beans first came to this country but, in 1890, the U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated in a re-1 search project on soybeans which was concerned mainly with the use of the legume in building and maintaining soil fertility. 1 Finally, several state universities universi-ties and agricultural experimental stations became interested in the seed or bean of the soybean plant. When the United States entered World War I in 1917 the research program was stepped up as scientists scien-tists tried to find a more plentiful and cheaper source of protein for human consumption. The campaign to educate farmers, farm-ers, industry and the public about the uses and merits of the new crop was a gradual success and every year crop production figures fig-ures have continued to climb. Although the range of industrial products utilizing the soybean is so wide the demand for edible oils is so great that only five to 15 per cent of all soybean oil sold goes into industrial products. |
