PREFACE 



Volumes have been written on varied farm crops 

 approaching the subject matter from as many differ- 

 ent points of view. The student or the everyday 

 farmer may delve as deeply as he may wish into the 

 technique of cereal production, live stock manage- 

 ment, etc. Books can be found on practically all 

 lines of farm activity from the growing of wheat in 

 an extensive way; and so of the various field, fruit, 

 vegetable and special crops and live stock undertak- 

 ings until one's thirst for agricultural information 

 is thoroughly quenched, and his appetite for farm 

 literature satiated. But surprising though it may 

 seem, the bean, admittedly important in our agri- 

 cultural economy, has not, to the writer's knowl- 

 edge, ever been dignified by having a book given 

 over exclusively to it. Practically the only infor- 

 mation one can get on the subject is from incom- 

 plete reference in other works which treat only one 

 particular phase of the subject. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture and the various state 

 experiment stations have worked out problems rel- 

 ative to beans and l>ean culture, some of which have 

 been published; others have not. The agricultural 

 press has printed considerable matter from time to 

 time on the subject. 



It is the author's object to bring together the 

 many individual accounts, perhaps complete in 

 themselves, and combine them in such a way as to 

 give in a nutshell to those interested, authoritative 

 and detailed information relative to beans. The 



