1913] FREEMAN—TEPARY 415 
soaking and cooking thoroughly, the tepary is no more dense or 
heavy than the bean, having overcome this in its greater expansion. 
A gentleman well acquainted with the customs of the Mexican 
and Indian users of the teparies states that these legumes are 
preferred to the bean and are highly prized for the preparation of 
light soups. At first I thought this might be due to the extraction 
of less solid matter, resulting in a thinner, more delicate soup. 
An experiment, however, was carried out whereby an equal dry 
weight of beans and teparies were boiled until well done. The 
liquors were then made up to equal volumes, well shaken, and 
too cc. of each evaporated to dryness. Contrary to expectation, 
the dry residue was greater for the teparies than for the beans. 
The residue from the teparies was much clearer, more gelatinous, 
and dried into a translucent, horny flake; whereas that from the 
beans was more friable, and dried into a somewhat brittle mass. 
Under the husbandry of the Indians, this group has shown great 
variation. I have been able to segregate and grow more than 40 
distinct agricultural varieties and I do not doubt that many more 
exist which I have not yet secured. In productivity, especially 
where the conditions are adverse, the tepary far exceeds the bean. 
In 9 experiments covering three years’ work at Yuma, two at 
Tucson, and three at McNeal, the average yield of the tepary 
varieties has been slightly in excess of-four times the average for 
the varieties of the kidney bean. The explanation of these greater 
yields on the part of the teparies, in all probability, lies in the 
perfect physiological adaptation of these native plants to the 
climatological environment in which they had their development 
th as wild and domesticated species. As examples of this 
perfect adaptation may be mentioned the following: : 
a) Ability to germinate quickly in the presence of a low mois- 
ture content of the soil. This enables them to take advantage 
of the sudden desert downpours which wet the ground and then 
rapidly disappear by evaporation. Teparies, which are able to 
germinate and come up in 3-5 days’ less time than the bean, are 
thus able to get their leaves into the air and their roots into the 
soil by the aid of showers which would be wholly inadequate for 
securing a stand of a less specialized crop. 
