| Show soy beans differ in various ways pods with one seed some with two three and others four by dr C M H woodworth chief in plant university of illinois rapid rise to the national leadership in soy bean production and the prospects for a still further increase in acreage during the coming year are drawing attention of if farmers and plant breeders bleeders bre eders to marker marked differences between varieties of this crop the record crop of nine and a half million bushels in illinois in 1934 was valued at more than eight million dollars and represented 54 per cent of the national production soy bean varieties have been found to vary not only in seed color but also in many other characters affecting their commercial production these differences feren ces will become increasingly important as the production of the crop expands one of the important characters in which varieties differ Is in the number 0 of seeds eeds to a pod there fire are some pods with only one seed some wa with th it two we seeds others with three and still others with four usually there are very few one seeded and four seeded pods in a given variety varieties also differ in the proportion of the differ ent sized pods the ito san Is predominantly a two seeded type and the 1111 nl ni a three seeded type in experiments on breeding soy beans a type was found with a very high percentage of one seeded pods two or three newly introduced varieties from the united states department of agriculture show a higher proportion of four seeded pods than any commercial varieties now being grown tests prove that these varieties breed true for the particular proportions found indicating that the character Is inherited contrary to what might be expected the varieties having a high proportion of four seeded pods are not ai as good elders as many varieties with a majority of two seeded pods the four seeded types usually produce small plants bearing a much smaller number of pods than the taller growing higher yielding fieldin two seeded varieties furthermore it Is difficult to combine the four seeded character of a variety with the good character of another variety this Is only one of the complications in improving soy beans for a still more important place in american agriculture |
