Influenced by experiments conducted in the 1890s by Purdue University and Indiana farmers like his father Solomon, Carroll County farmer Taylor Fouts was growing soybeans by 1904. With his brothers Noah and Finis, Fouts was instrumental in making soybeans an essential Indiana crop through experimentation, education, a seed company, and meetings at Soyland farm. On Sept. 3, 1920, more than 1,000 farmers and researchers met there for the Corn Belt Soybean Conference and formed a national organization that became the American Soybean Association, electing Taylor Fouts president. The association's advocacy helped expand soybean production from 112,826 acres in 1919 to 76.1 million acres in 2019, making soybeans the second largest U.S. crop.