Vegetable Growing '81 



California experience is that horse beans grow readily without 

 inoculation of the seed. Quite a good growth of the plant is being 

 secured in many parts of the State, particularly in the coast region 

 where the plant seems to thrive best. It is one of the hardiest of 

 the bean family and will endure light frost. Mow hardy it will prove 

 in your place could be told only by a local experiment. Whether 

 it can be planted after frost danger is over, as corn is, and make 

 satisfactory growth and product in the dry heat of the interior sum- 

 mer must also be determined by experience. 



The horse bean is a tall growing, upright plant which is suc- 

 cessfully grown in rows far enough apart for cultivation, say about 

 2 1-2 feet, the seed dropped thinly so that the plants will stand from 

 6 inches to 1 foot apart in the row. 



Growing Castor Beans. 



Give information on the castor oil bean; the kind of bean best to 

 plant, zvhen to plant and harvest, the best soil, and where one can market 

 them. 



Castor bean growing has been undertaken from time to time 

 since 1860 in various parts of California. There is no difficulty about 

 getting a satisfactory growth of the plant in parts of the State where 

 moisture enough can be depended upon. Although the growing of 

 beans is easy enough, the harvesting is a difficult proposition, be- 

 cause in California the clusters ripen from time to time, have to be 

 gathered by hand, to be put in the sun to dry, and finally threshed 

 when they are popping properly. The low price, in connection with 

 the amount of hand work which has to be done upon the crop, has 

 removed all the attractions for California growers. There is also, 

 some years, an excess of production in the central West, which 

 causes prices to fall and makes it still more impracticable to make 

 money from the crop with the ordinary rates of labor. The oil can- 

 not be economically extracted except by the aid of the most effect- 

 ive machinery and a well equipped establishment. Oil-making in 

 the rude way in which it is conducted in India would certainly not 

 be profitable here. 



Legume Seed Inoculation, 



Is there any virtue in inoculating plants tvith the bacteria that some 

 seed arms offer? I refer to such plants as peas and beans. 



If the land is yielding good crops of these plants and the roots 

 are noduled, it does not need addition of germs. If the growth is 

 scant even when there is enough moisture present and the roots are 

 free from nodules, the presumption is that germs should be added. 

 Speaking generally, added germs are not needed in California be- 

 cause our great legume crops are made without inoculation. Pre- 

 sumably, burr clover and our host of native legumes have already 

 charged the soil with them. If, however, such plants do not do 

 well, try inoculation by all means, to see if absence of germs is the 

 reason for such failure or whether you must look for some other 



