Valuable Legumes

     Though alien to North America, soybeans, alfalfa and rye are abundant crops in Lancaster County farmland, as elsewhere.  And they have values in common.  They are ground covers that help prevent soil erosion, fix nitrogen in the soil, enriching it, and provide food and shelter for several adaptable kinds of wildlife.  The leaves of these species are deep-green and they are planted as monocultures in large fields. 
     Soybeans are originally from eastern Asia.  They are raised for the beans they produce on the tops of stems above their leaves.  The mature beans are harvested in autumn after the leaves turn yellow, die and fall off the plants. 
     Soybean fruits have many uses.  They are edible when steamed or roasted.  Don't eat them raw.  They are also used to make soy oil, soymilk, pet food, fuels, plastics and many other products.
     White-tailed deer, wood chucks and cottontail rabbits eat the lush foliage of soybean plants in summer.  And those mammals, plus others, hide in three-foot-high soybean fields, the deer by lying down in them. 
     Silver-spotted skipper butterfly caterpillars also ingest soybean leaves.  Those larvae are yellow-green with brown heads that have two orange spots that resemble eyes.  Those "eye" spots intimidate would-be, feathered predators. 
     Alfalfa is a hay originally from Europe.  This perennial crop can grow up to four feet tall, and is harvested to the ground about four or five times during each growing season.  It is fed to cattle and horses in barns during winter. 
     Alfalfa grows lovely, pale-lavender flowers with a delicately-sweet scent, when allowed to.  Various types of bees and butterflies, and other kinds of insects, sip nectar from alfalfa blossoms.
     Deer, chucks and rabbits nibble alfalfa leaves and blooms.  Those mammals shelter in alfalfa, until it is mowed.  Chucks can still live down their burrows in the ground of alfalfa fields, but those dens are exposed to people and larger predators.
     Rye is the most versatile and best of these plants; and it is favored by many farmers.  Also from Europe, it is planted in fall as a ground cover through the winter to prevent soil erosion, and to rebuild nutrients in the soil in corn and tobacco fields after those demanding crops are harvested late in summer.  And rye is a hardy  species  that grows in winter when the temperature is warm, adding green to farmland during that harsh season. 
     During winter and into early spring, rye blades are consumed by wintering or migrant Canada geese, snow geese and tundra swans.  Canada geese and swans pluck the green shoots like sheep grazing on grass.  The grass continues to live and sprout new leaves.  But snow geese eat the blades and roots of rye plants, killing them, which ruins part of the crop. 
    In spring, cattle are fenced in rye fields to graze on the green and growing blades.  Later it might be mowed and stored as silage to feed cows and horses.  Or the rye might be plowed under where it decays, forming green manure that enriches the soil.  Or the rye might be allowed to grow through spring and early summer to be harvested for its grain.  The many rye stems (straw) are raked and baled to be used as animal bedding in the barns.          
     These are major crops in Lancaster County that are useful to people and wildlife.  And they also have esthetic beauties that make them valuable.