462 



BEAN 



BEAN 



;il)plie(l at this 



one half to 3 acro-inohcs per acre 

 lime. 



Ilonysting. ami caring for the product. 



In the set-lions of light and unirrigatcd land, the 

 lioans ripen from August 20 to September 10. In the 

 irrii;:ite<i parts and on heavier huui, tliey ripen from 

 September 10 to September 2.3 or October 1. These 

 dati>s indicate the time tlie beans are harvested. Before 

 the earliest date for eaeh section there will be some dry 

 pods in all the fields and at the latest date of harvest 

 there are always green jiods. 



The beans are liarvesled by a seed-cut ter with two 

 nmners 12 to lo inches high. On the inner side of each 

 a knife is set diagonally backward and toward the middle 

 of the slwi. A few 

 inches above each 

 knife is a bar of iron 

 or wood set in a simi- 

 lar position. Thesled- 

 runners are such a 

 distance apart that 

 two rows of beans 

 will pass between 

 them. Hence each 

 knife is drawn along 

 the line of the row- 

 cutting the plants 

 just below the sur- 

 face of the ground. 

 The diagonal position 

 of the knife causes it 

 to cut the plant-s 

 clean without pulling 

 up by the roots, and 

 together with the 

 diagonal bar above, pushes both 

 rows to the middle, leaving them 

 together in a windrow. The.se 

 cutters are often mounte<l on 

 wheels to bear the main weight 

 of the sled and driver, the runner 

 cutting into the ground just 

 enough to hold it firmly to the 

 row. Levers are provitled to 

 r.iise and lower the frame of the 

 -led. A man with two or three 

 liorses, usually three, cuts from 

 s to 123 2 acres a day. 



The vines, after lying in wind- 

 rows for a few hours, as left by 

 the cutter, are piled by hand 

 with pitchforks. Three wind- 

 lows are commonly placed to- 

 gether in one row of piles. Piles are 4 or 5 feet in 

 diameter on the ground and 3 feet high. They remain 

 in these piles till very dry, which is a length of time 

 varying with the weather and the maturity of the 

 bean.s, but usually from two to three weeks. A man 

 is expected to pile about ') acres a day, but frefjuently 

 does not pile more than 2 or 3 acres. It rerjuir(^s from 

 two to three men to handle the beans cut with one sled. 



Threshing is done by itinerant machines, using for 

 |K»wer either steam or gasolene engines. The machines 

 thresh from l,fXX) to 2,.5(X) sacks per day, 1,.'")00 being a 

 fair day's work. In a few instances about 3,000 sacks 

 have been threshed in a day. The charge is usually 

 2.1 cent.s a hundred pounds, equal to 20 cents a sack. 

 The Vjeans are stored in large warehouses until mar- 

 kfiifi, and are generally recleaned by a mechanical 

 recleaner which is very satisfactory. 



YiM and value of crop. 



The average yield m about fourteen sacks, eighty 

 pffund-s per .sack, or about 1,120 pounds per acre. Some 

 fields produce nearly three times this amount, but in 



485. 



The Chickasaw Lima, or Jack bean. — 

 Canavaiia eosiformis. (Xia) 



the best .section an average of I weiity-five sacks or 2,000 

 poiuids per acre is (•(insiiicred lo he satisfactory. 



.\nuther factor wliicli is of importance, and which has 

 only recently come lo be ai)precialed, is the value of the 

 bean straw as rough feed, ll is generally regarded that 

 the straw is worth about -11 per ton in the field, loose. 



CiEOHOE W. Shaw. 



Tepary beans. 



The tepary is a small white bean native to the 

 southwestern region of the United States {Phaseolus 

 arulifolius var. latifiiliu^), long grown by the Indians 

 and now receiving attention from general cultivators. 

 The first full acount is in Bulletin 68, Arizona Experi- 

 ment Station (1912). 



The devcloiiment of artesian and dry-farming dis- 

 tricts in Arizona, together with the increased use of 

 piunped water for irrigation, have created a need for a 

 leguminous crop which, used in rotation with grain or 

 forage planting, will maintain the nitrogen and humous 

 content of the soil and at the same time [irovide a 

 money return which is sure and profitable. The experi- 

 ence of practical farmers throughout Arizona and New 

 Mexico has for years demonstrated the fact that no 

 crop so well fills this demand as the growing of dry 

 cans. Being a countrywide food staple, they have 

 market which is httle influenced by local 

 conditions other than transportation 

 charges. As corn in Illinois, cotton in 

 Texas or wheat in Kansas represent 

 to their producers products of staple 

 value, so may the dry-farmers of the 

 Southwest, and those irrigating with 

 artesian and pumped waters, look to 

 the bean as a money-crop which at all 

 times may be surely and readily turned 

 into cash. 



Varieties of beans originated in the 

 humid sections of the East are of but 

 httle value when grown in Arizona. 

 They do not withstand satisfactorily 

 the extreme ariflity and heat of the air 

 during the summer months. Out of a 

 large number of varieties tested at 

 Yuma, only those of southwestern 

 origin wore at all .successful. 



Among these southwestern varieties 

 of beans, first tested at Yuma in 1909, 

 certain ones were noted which gave 

 yields far in excess of all others, includ- 

 ing even the much-]irized i5ink bean, 

 or frijole. Subsequent investigations 

 developed the fact that this group of 

 varieties (known as teparics) was distinct from either 

 the common kidney or snap bean. They were found to 

 constitute a new species, hitherto unrecognized as a 

 cultivated plant in botanical or horticultural hterature. 

 It has been described by the writer as a new variety of 

 Plidtieolus aculifolius. In its wild state, Phaseolus 

 aculifoUiis is peculiar to the southwestern desert 

 region. It may be found on the mountain-sides and in 

 narrow valleys from the Pecos river westward across 

 New Mexico and Arizona and southward into the 

 adjoining states of Mexico. Domesticated from the 

 neighboring canons and cultivated in small patches, 

 attended at best by a crude husbandry and dependent 

 upon the precarious summer rains and uncertain floods 

 from the mountain washes for irrigation, the tepary has 

 lost none of its native hanlincss. It has been cultivated 

 by the Papiigo and Pima Indians from prehistoric 

 times and in all probability formed one of the principal 

 food-crops of that ancient, and tmknown agricultural 

 race, the ruins of whose cities and irrigating canals are 

 now the only witnesses of their former presence and 

 [irosperity. 



