AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 165 



first crop on new land. Very little fertilizer is used. 

 While grown in rotation, modern machinery is not 

 employed. 



The ten-year average yield of potatoes for the 

 State for the period ending in 1915 was 97.5 bushels. 

 It has ranged from 145 bushels in 1914 to 62 bushels 

 in 1915. The northern counties have the best yields 

 and run from 150 to 200 bushels. Xext to these 

 stands Long Island, then the western potato belt. 

 The Hudson Valley counties have the smallest yield. 



Both dry beans and green peas are important crops 

 and are grown in the Finger Lakes region of western 

 New York. In the production of beans New York is 

 third, with an acreage of 116,000. Michigan and 

 California lead with three-fourths of the total for tlie 

 country, New York being the only other state with 

 more than 100,000 acres. New York's acreage has 

 been going down for forty years, the fall being heav- 

 iest in the counties of the Mohawk and the middle 

 Hudson Valley where the crop was formerly of only 

 minor importance. In recent years the growing of 

 beans has been much hindered by a diseased condi- 

 tion of the roots that carries over in the soil and has 

 caused a heavy reduction in acreage in the centers of 

 bean-growing. 



In green peas the State leads with a fifth of the 

 total acreage, about 17,000 acres or one-seventh of 

 that of beans. Wisconsin is a poor second. Like 

 beans, green peas have suffered a heavy decrease in 

 acreage that has been continuous for several decades 

 and has been quite heavy in recent years. 



