8 



From none except the velvet beans were satisfactory results obtained, 

 no crops of sufficient yield being produced to pay for soiling or for the 

 labor of turning down as green manure. To this the velvet bean was a 

 notable exception, amply sustaining its reputation as a dry-region prod- 

 uct, yielding abundant and vigorous vine and seed. Samples fed to cara- 

 bao by the writer were eagerly consumed, and a ration of this well-known 

 nutritious fodder to supplement the precarious subsistence of chance 

 weeds and innutritious grasses that chiefly go to make up the diet of this 

 most useful animal would doubtless result beneficially to beast and owner 

 alike. That it will grow here and yield abundantly, if not as a spon- 

 taneous crop, at least with a minimum outlay of labor, is a feature that 

 should commend it strongly to many native farmers. 



GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



A fairly wide range of experiments have been carried on with horticul- 

 tural products directly under the Bureau's observation and through a 

 large circle of collaborators. 



The facts as coming to this Bureau, which of course must be impar- 

 tially recorded, show a larger percentage of failure or poor success than 

 one would desire to report of any planting enterprise. Yet it must not 

 be forgotten that there wer< three contributing causes that would make a 

 preponderance of ill success during our initial year almost unavoidable. 

 One, due to the difficulties of maintaining our seed supply in the best 

 possible germinative condition, while in our own hands and after it had 

 gone into the hands of our consignees. This was a pregnant cause of 

 failure and one that happily, as the results of improved methods of pack- 

 ing, preserving, and shipping, will be largely obviated in future. A 

 second cause of failure was the unprecedented and long-continued drought 

 and the failure of springs, streams, and wells in localities heretofore 

 under irrigation, while a third and serious factor was found in the neces- 

 sity of selecting or utilizing the service of willing but perfectly untrained 

 observers. Not only were they inexperienced in cultivation of many of 

 the products sent to them, but their unfamiliarity with methods of 

 recording material and useful data has impaired the value of the whole. 

 In detail the Bureau, outside of its own definite trials, has received 

 reports on 



Bush or Snap Beans. Eeports from forty-one collaborators show 

 gratifying results from sixteen sources and more or less pronounced fail- 

 ure from twenty-five. From central Luzon came the best records, and the 

 poorest are accredited to the Visayan group. Our own observations show 

 no deterioration in yield or quality, and that good crops may be assured 

 by the maintenance of proper conditions. 



Lima and Pole Beans. These proved equally satisfactory, and where 

 protected from inundation by listing or hilling-up the land will doubtless 

 flourish as well as the indigenous Phaseolus lunatus that is so largely 



