OTHER HOT-SEASON ANNUAL LEGUMES 551 



this country, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, where 

 its great drought resistance gives it particular promise. 

 There is also the probability that the jackbean may prove 

 to be valuable for silage. Its coarse habit and heavy 

 tonnage should adapt it well to this purpose. 



The large yield of seed to the acre justifies further experi- 

 ments to determine whether any means can be devised to 

 utilize the seeds profitably as feed, which the work of the 

 Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station indicates is 

 a difficult problem. 



668. Mung bean (Phaseolus aureus). The mung 

 bean is native to southern Asia. It is probably a plant 

 of very ancient culture, as it is grown by the natives 

 throughout the southern half of Asia and the principal 

 Malayan Islands as well as on the eastern coast of Africa. 

 In these countries the mung bean is grown mainly for the 

 seed which is an important article of human food, but in 

 India the straw is also prized as forage for live stock. 



The habit of the mung bean is very similar to that of 

 the cowpea, but the plants are less viny and some are 

 strictly bush. The adaptations of the plant are also 

 practically identical with that of the cowpea. The plant 

 was introduced into American agriculture as early as 

 1835 when it was known as the Chickasaw pea, and some- 

 what later it was called the Oregon pea under the erroneous 

 idea that it came from that region. Notwithstanding its 

 wide testing thus early in the Southern States and much 

 testing in recent years with numerous varieties, the mung 

 bean has not been able to find a place in American agricul- 

 ture in competition with the cowpea. The reasons for 

 this are mainly that the pods continue to be formed and 

 ripen until frost, and they shatter very readily. In coun- 

 tries where labor is cheap and the pods are picked promptly 



