Clara Mae Blake, age 13, of Billings, Mont., for her question:
WHO FIRST CULTIVATED THE SOYBEAN?
More than 5,000 years ago, farmers in China cultivated soybeans. The ancient Chinese used soybeans as food and also made medicines from it. The soybean is one of the oldest crops grown by man.
Earliest written record of the plant came from Emperor Shung Nung of China. In 2838 B.C. he wrote a description of the plant. The Chinese considered soybeans their most important crop and one of the five sacred grains necessary for living.
It wasn't until the 1600s that the soybean was introduced into Germany, England, France and Hungary. At first the crop was not large in any part of Europe but this has changed in recent years.
Records show that the soybean came to America in 1804. At first it was cultivated in Pennsylvania. In 1854, the Perry expedition to Japan brought back a number of new varieties.
The United States Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with 22 state agronomy departments, has introduced many varieties for various growing regions and for special uses, and thus has boosted the commercial growth of the soybean. Successful soybean processing began in the early 1920s. Today the greatest acreage and total production are found in the Middle West.
Today the United States produces about three fourths of the world's soybean crop. About nine percent of the nation's soybeans are exported to Japan each year.
The soybean is rich in food values. It has more proteins than beef, more calcium than milk and more of a fatty substance called lecithin than eggs. It is also rich in vitamins, minerals and acids.
Most soybeans in the United States are processed for oil. About one fifth of the bean is oil. The oil is used to make margarine, shortening and cooking oils. After the oil is extracted, the bean pulp and hulls are used to make meal. This is a most important livestock feed.
Leading producer of soybeans in the United States is Illinois. Other important soybean growing states, listed in order of production, are Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana.
Soybeans probably supply more than half of all the protein meals fed to livestock in the United States.
Soybeans are also used to make soy flour, which is used to make breads, pancakes, puddings, soups and many other foods. Soy sauce, a salty brown sauce made from soybeans, is used to flavor foods.
Vegetarians, those people who do not eat meat, make up the largest market for a large number of meatless food items that look and taste like beef, pork and other kinds of meat.
Soybean meal is also used in making paper coatings, adhesives, sizing for cloth, fertilizer, linoleum backing, insect sprays and dozens of other products. Finding new uses for the soybean has been one of the achievements of the science of chemurgy.