254 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



Courtesy Bureau of Soils, U. S. Dept. of Agricultui 

 A FIKLD OV LIMA BKANS TH1-: I'RINCI 1'A I. CROP OF THE VALLEY. 



The cultivation of the lima bean is 

 very simple. In the first place, there 

 is little attention paid to rotation of 

 crops, as beans, like all legumes, seem 

 not only to take but little from the soil, 

 but to actually enrich it ; and there are 

 some fields near Ventura on which beans 

 have been planted for more than twenty 

 consecutive years without any appre- 

 ciable deterioration of the soil, and in 

 sonic cu>cs an improvement is averred 

 by the owner. 



The crop is removed from the fields 

 in the fall and cultivation begins at 

 once. The earth is worked to a depth 

 of 10 or 12 inches and the clods pulver- 

 ized with disc harrows and rollers, and 

 with a special harrow which " chisels " 

 the soil. In some cases the land is not 

 plowed at all from year to year, but is 

 kept cultivated, and " chiseled " before 



planting. The beans are put in the 

 ground in May with a special machine, 

 which plants four rows at a time. This 

 comparatively late planting is done in 

 order to get the seed into the ground 

 after the last rain of the wet season, for 

 two reasons : in the first place, it is 

 easier to work the ground to prevent 

 the escape of moisture before the crop 

 is planted ; and, secondly, if the rain 

 lias packed the surface of the soil after 

 the bean has been planted, when the 

 root sprout pushes the bean through 

 the surface to start the plant above 

 ground, it is unable to penetrate the 

 crust formed, the planting has been of 

 little value, and in most cases has to be 

 done over again. 



After the plant is above ground it is 

 cultivated two or three times to prevent 

 the growth of weeds, and for this an 



