IIO BEAN CULTURE 



per pound, and at this level the crop is regarded a 

 profitable one. In some seasons growers secure $ l /2 

 cents at the shipping station. The lima bean crop is 

 very largely contracted by growers to dealers before 

 the harvest is completed. After the beans are in the 

 warehouse owned by large dealers, they are gener- 

 ally stored for a time, and withdrawn for shipment 

 on eastern orders as occasion warrants. The stor- 

 age facilities on the Pacific coast are exceptionally 

 good, and expenses lighter than in storing the 

 beans further east. Stored near points of production 

 they can be more economically routed and shipped 

 into distributive channels than would be the case 

 were they stored in eastern centers, and reshipped. 

 For this reason the principal stocks of lima beans 

 are usually found on the Pacific coast. In a good 

 year the crop of California lima beans is 800,000 

 bags, weighing 80 pounds to the bag. 



Varieties for leading markets. The standard vari- 

 eties of beans for market are few. The pea bean is 

 far and away the most popular east or west. In the 

 great wholesale market of New York city, probably 

 60 per cent of all the beans handled are pea beans. 

 Next in popularity in the market named is the red 

 kidney, but of course other sorts are much in vogue. 

 Lima beans are in considerable favor in all sections. 

 While all white beans are sold on a 60 pound basis 

 in New York city, red beans are 58 pounds to a 

 bushel. Sharing the pea bean in popularity is the 

 medium, a white bean but little larger and longer, 

 this also very much used in Boston. The medium 

 bean is considered by many growers the best pro- 

 ducer to the acre, and the dealers regard it well be- 

 cause it ripens a little earlier, more evenly, and is 



