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The Journal of Heredity 



the bushes and the brushwood that 

 accumulate under most of the trees, 

 so that wagon-sheets could be spread to 

 catch the beans, which could be knocked 

 off readily with poles, most of the trees 

 being low. 



Picking up beans from the coarse 

 gravel and vegetable debris under the 

 trees is rather slow work, about an 

 hour being required to collect a pound. 

 But if values were to be reckoned on the 

 basis of shelled peanuts, which are 

 often sold at 50 cents and upward per 

 pound, even this most laborious method 

 of gathering the beans might appear 

 justified if bearing trees were readily 

 accessible. 



Another question that naturally sug- 

 gests itself is whether profitable yields 

 could be obtained by planting the trees 

 in orchard form. At present there 

 are no data bearing on this subject 

 beyond the fact that some of the wild 

 trees are very prolific, so that a yield of 

 half a bushel of beans per tree seems not 

 impossible. At this rate of production 

 orchard planting of Olneya might prove 

 remunerative, and it might be found 

 that other crops could be raised on the 

 same land, as in the subculture system 

 used in the desert oases of North 

 Africa and other parts of the world. 

 Even if the beans were not harvested 

 for human use, turkeys or pigs might 

 keep them from being wasted. Stores 

 of beans collected by the desert rodents 

 are said to have been drawn upon largely 

 in former times by the Indians. 



How rapidly the trees would grow, 

 and how soon they would begin to 

 bear if planted under favorable con- 

 ditions, have still to be learned, since 

 there appear to be no records of such 

 experiments. Small stunted trees with 

 trunks only 3 or 4 inches in diameter 

 sometimes produce beans. Sprouts 

 from old stumps may begin bearing 

 when only 1 or 2 inches thick. 



A first planting of Olneya at Sacaton 

 in August, 1918, was lost, all of the 

 seedlings being eaten off close to the 

 ground, probably by rabbits. A second 

 planting early in September, with wire 

 protection, grew rapidly, and many of 

 the seedlings were over a foot high by 



the end of October. Unlike some 

 members of the pea family that have 

 seedlings with simple leaves, Olneya 

 has only compound leaves above the 

 cotyledons. 



That rapid growth may continue if the 

 trees receive a regular supply of water 

 is indicated by the fact that many 

 vigorous new shoots, 4 or 5 feet long 

 and over half an inch in diameter, were 

 produced in the season of 1918 on old 

 trees watered from a new well in the 

 desert near Sacaton. Trees in rapid 

 growth and in full leaf produce few or 

 no beans, while trees that bore the 

 heaviest crops of beans had only a 

 sparse development of leaves. 



It appears that Olneya, like many 

 other desert trees, is extremely deep- 

 rooted, so that transplanting may prove 

 difficult or impossible. In an effort to 

 transplant an Olneya tree from the 

 desert near Yuma, reported by Mr. R. 

 E. Blair, no lateral roots were found 

 near the surface, and for 7 or 8 feet the 

 large taproot remained entirely un- 

 branched. Such a habit of root growth 

 would indicate little or no interference 

 with surface crops, so that Olneya may 

 prove well adapted for planting in or 

 near cultivated lands and may serve 

 very well for hedges or wind-breaks, as 

 well as for holding terraces or barriers 

 against erosion, which are often needed 

 in agricultural development of sloping 

 mesa or foot-hill lands of the southwest. 

 Even on desert lands that are too 

 broken for irrigation it might prove 

 worth while to plant belts of Olneya 

 across the washes, to hold back and 

 spread the flood-waters. More mois- 

 ture would be absorbed by the soil, 

 and more vegetation could grow in 

 addition to the forage than the Olneya 

 itself would afford. 



In view of the several possibilities of 

 use it may seem strange that Olneya 

 has not been cultivated before or that 

 it was not domesticated by the native 

 agricultural tribes of the southwestern 

 states or of Mexico, but tree-crops were 

 not a general feature of the native 

 American agriculture. The most con- 

 spicuous exception wa? cacao, which 



