190 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



mospheric aridity generally ; third, adequate moisture both 

 in air and soil to maintain healthful vegetative verdure 

 followed by a dry-soil-ripening period just as soon as the 

 vines have filled pods enough for a paying crop. 



Local Adaptations to Bean Growing. These conditions 

 are prescribed for a bean crop of the dry seed. They are 

 all found in eminent degree on the coast sides of three 

 counties: San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura, 

 and these counties ten years ago produced perhaps nine- 

 tenths of the commercial bean crop of the State. Of course 

 extensions of the region in other counties both north and 

 south along the coast have similar conditions, and have 

 recently developed a large product. Favorable conditions, 

 however, disappear wit*h greater rapidity toward the in- 

 terior. Each of the three counties mentioned is disposed 

 on both sides of ridges of the Coast Range mountains. The 

 ocean-side lands produce the beans: the interior valleys 

 of the same counties, perhaps not over 15 miles away, are 

 beanless. The mountain ridges exclude the ocean breeze 

 and the occasional fogs and mists, and bean plants would 

 perish from dry heat before a crop could be made. On 

 the other hand, on the ocean side of the mountains, beans 

 are planted in May, after the rains are practically over, 

 and the ocean tempers heat and furnishes moisture to the 

 air, so that, by conservation of soil-water by good culti- 

 vation, the crop is often made without a drop of rain from 

 seed to harvest. 



On the moist or irrigated lands of the interior where 

 heat and atmospheric aridity are tempered by evaporation 

 from large supplies of fresh water or moist soil, there are 

 also conditions which suit some varieties of beans very 

 well, and constantly increasing crops are made. On in- 

 terior lowlands, however, there is sometimes a summer 

 rising of moisture from rivers, bank-full from melting 

 mountain snows or other sources, which interferes with 

 proper ripening of the beans by pushing the vegetative 

 growth of the plants when they should be maturing a crop 

 already formed. If, then, early rains come, the bean 



