364 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



average in yield from twenty to twenty-five of these large pods to 

 the plant. In quality for table use, we think it is fully equal to the 

 Lima bean." A. Jones Taylor, Vernon, Texas, sends the bean to 

 me under the name of Chickasaw Lima. It is said to be cultivated 

 by the Chickasaw Indians. Professor Georgeson describes and 

 figures it as one of the economic plants of Japan in " American 

 Gardening," for February, 1S93. 



Professor S. M. Tracy, of the Agricultural College of Missis- 

 sippi, wrote me as follows about this bean in August, 1895 : " I 

 know very little about Jack beans. I suppose them to be Can- 

 avalia ensiformis. A few Mexicans who have sent them say that 

 they are common in that country, where they are used for food. 

 One of my assistants saw them at a county fair in the southei'n 

 part of this state five years ago, and brought a couple of pods 

 home with him. I grew them on small plots three years, and 

 last year had about half an acre, which yielded at the rate of twenty- 

 three bushels per acre. A neighbor claims to have had thirty 

 bushels, which I think is reasonable, as my crop of this year 

 appears as though it would be even heavier. I have eaten the 

 beans, and find them quite edible, though rather coarse. I have 

 not fed them to cows, but chemical analysis shows them to be 

 fully equal to other beans. We have ten acres this year, and pro- 

 pose to give them a thorough test in feeding next winter. I do not 

 tnow any one who has used them, or who has grown them in any 

 quantity." 



The result of this last crop, Professor Ti-acy now reports, this 

 month, as follows : " The Jack Beans yielded thirty to forty 

 bushels per acre. We have used the beans this winter in feeding 

 steers, cows and hogs, and I am greatly surprised to find them of 

 almost no value. Cattle soon learn to eat the meal made from the 

 beans, but it appears to be very ditficult of digestion. We have 

 used it constantly for ten weeks until yesterday, when I decided 

 that there was no occasion for any further work. Next week I 

 shall commence feeding the cooked meal, and if I ^^ei satisfactory 

 results from that, shall try cooking some of the beans also." 



I have grown this Jack Bean only as a curiosity and have not 

 tested its culinary qualities. It fruits freely under glass. I report 

 it here because there is considerable incjuiry concerning it and be- 

 cause there is no accessible literature of it. 



