56 CROP PRODUCTION 



season after. Consequently an important preventive 

 measure is to choose seed from fields or pods in which 

 the disease is not present. 



The Bean Weevil is about the only insect enemy that 

 is generally destructive to this crop. The eggs are laid 

 inside the green pods by the small brown beetles. The 

 larvae that hatch from these eggs feed upon the beans 

 for about a month; then they change again to beetles. 

 They are able to develop also in dry stored beans, but 

 are easily destroyed in these by fumigation with carbon 

 bisulphid. 



Peas 



While the garden bean is a tender plant from tropical 

 regions requiring a warm soil and season for thrifty 

 growth, the Garden Pea is a hardy plant from northern 

 regions requiring a cool soil and climate for its best 

 growth. Peas have been cultivated for more than 

 twenty centuries and probably were originally grown 

 as garden plants in Asia, where the Wild Pea, Pisum 

 sativum, is a native species. The characters have been 

 so greatly modified that the garden varieties now grown, 

 are great improvements over the original form. There 

 are dwarf, medium, and tall sorts, and those with sm.all 

 or large seeds and pods. The Field Pea, grown for forage, 

 is ranked as a special variety of the garden species. 



The Garden Peas are commonly divided into two 

 principal groups — the Smooth-seeded and the Wrinkled- 

 seeded Peas. The Smooth-seeded sorts are firmer and 

 hardier; the seed can be planted very early with Httle 

 danger of rotting in the ground, but the resulting crop 

 is poor in quality and soon becomes too hard to be 



