The Pole Lima Beans. 369 



Ventura County. Santa Barbarba County. 



1893 .... 1 5500 car loads. 250 car loads. 



1895 1,100 " " 120 " ^' 



A car load is about ten tons. 



It is a question if Lima bean seed which is grown continuously in 

 the long seasons of California is as reliable for our short seasons as 

 home grown seed is. For myself, if I were expecting to grow 

 Liinas for market in central New York, I should prefer to select 

 and grow my own seed or else be sure, if it were California sjrown, 

 that the "' stock " were annually grown in my own geographical 

 region. 



A most instructive account of the interesting Lima bean industry 

 of southern California was printed in the "American Florist," for 

 December 28, 1895, written by L. B. Hogue, Santa Paula,California, 

 J. C. Yaughan, of Chicago, who has given considerable attention to 

 this western bean interest, writes me commending the article. In 

 order to complete the contemjDoraneous history of the Lima bean 

 as well as to instruct our own people in some of the essentials of 

 the cultivation of these plants, I append the larger part of the 

 article : 



"More than twenty years ago a farmer in the Carpenteria valley 

 experimented with the Lima bean. None of them had been gro\\a] 

 on this coast for market at that time. The experiment proved a 

 j3erfect success. Every requisite for producing this variety in its 

 perfection seemed to be supplied here. A remunerative price was 

 readily obtained for the mature bean. From this time others began 

 to grow them. The demand grew with the increase of the product. 

 The profits became much greater than were those of any other farm 

 <3rop, which proved a great stimulus to improved methods. Some- 

 thing like exact science was finally reached in the matter of the 

 preparations and cultivation of the soil. The primitive way of 

 harvesting by hand, where one man could cut one acre per day by 

 hard work, was superseded by a simple horse power device, with 

 which one man could cut fifteen acres per day. Also implements 

 were invented for cultivating the land before planting, which facili- 

 tated the w^ork in like manner. To the credit of these farmers let 

 it be said that the machinery for the successful cultivation and har- 

 vesting of this crop was invented by them. 



" As a matter of course the success of the industry in the Car- 

 penteria soon attracted wide attention, and farmers in other parts 



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