82 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



reason. If the results are satisfactory, you may have made a great 

 gain by introduction of desirable soil organisms which you can ex- 

 tend as you like by the distribution of the germ-laden soil from the 

 areas which have been given that character by inoculation of the 

 seed. 



Beans on Irrigated Mesas. 



Would zvhite and pink beans do zvell on the red orange land at 

 Palermo with plenty of zvatcr? I have in mind hill land, the hills being 

 very red and running into a dark soil in the lower part. How many 

 beans could I get per acre? 



Probably nothing would be better for the land or for the future 

 needs of the trees than to grow beans. An average crop of beans, 

 for the whole State and all kinds of beans, is about one ton to the 

 acre. What you will get by irrigation on hot uplands we do not 

 know. Beans do not like dry heat, even if the soil moisture is ade- 

 quate. They do not fructify well even when they grow well. The 

 pink bean does best under such conditions. All beans, except horse 

 beans, must be brought up after frost dangers are all over, and this 

 brings them into high heat almost from the start in such a place as 

 you mention. You should find out locally how beans perform under 

 such conditions as you have, before undertaking much investment. 



Leases for Sugar Beets. 



/ have land in Yolo county that has made an average yield yearly 

 of from 12 to l8 sacks of wheat and barley. A beet sugar company 

 proposes renting this land and plant it to sugar beets and I would prefer 

 not to consider any agreement of less than five years' duration. The 

 particular point that I would like to have you advise me on is the effect 

 sugar beet has upon the soil. 



You certainly have good soil, and it is not strange that a sugar 

 company should desire to rent it for its purposes. There is, how- 

 ever, a great question as to whether it would be desirable to run 

 to beets continually for five years. Beets make a strong draft on 

 some components of the soil, and it is a common experience that 

 they should not be grown year after year for a long period, but 

 should take their place in a rotation, in the course of which one or 

 two crops of beets should be followed by a crop of grain, and that 

 if possible by a leguminous plant like alfalfa or an annual legume 

 like burr clover used for pasturage, and then to beets again. Beets 

 improve soil for grain, because of the deep running of the root, and 

 because beet culture is not profitable without deep plowing and con- 

 tinuous summer cultivation. This deepens and cleans the land to 

 the manifest advantage of the grain crop, but still the beet reduces 

 the plant food in the soil and some change of crop should be made 

 with reference to its restoration. We would much prefer to lease it 

 for two years than for five years of beet growing. 



