BEAN CULTURE 



CHAPTER I 

 HISTORY AND BOTANY 



The common bean, (Phaseolus vulgaris), is a mem- 

 ber of the leguminosae family, that class of plants 

 which offers to man one of the richest heritages 

 known to agriculture. For, as generally known, 

 it is members of this family which have under 

 proper conditions, the ability to acquire nitrogen 

 from the soil air. Therefore, since nitrogen is one of 

 the three elements which farmers most frequently 

 buy at high prices to feed their crops, the great eco- 

 nomic importance of beans or other nitrogen gather- 

 ing plants is at once apparent. This quite outside 

 of the money value of the crop when sold or fed. 



The origin of the kidney or common bean is not 

 definitely known, though leading authorities agree 

 it originated in tropical America. Beans were very 

 common among the Indians. Three weeks after 

 his first landing in the new world, Columbus saw 

 near Nuevitas in Cuba, fields planted with " fax- 

 ones" and "fabas" very different from those of 

 Spain. Faxones or fexoes were, as Navarrete says, 

 "the same as frejoles or judias." These are Span- 

 ish names for kidney beans which the Portuguese 

 called "Feijaos." Oviedo (1525-35) speaks of the 

 fesoles, or in Aragon judias. From this time (1535) 

 onward, nearly every writer who mentions plants 

 cultivated by the Indians mentions together, or in 

 close connection, maize, beans and pumpkins. It 

 appears (Lescarbot, 1608) the Indians planted corn 



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