I ¢- 
26 BULLETIN 582, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
a serious obstacle. Should a good market for canning peas and snap 
beans develop, these would be excellent enterprises for the orchardist, 
as the returns are high with fair crops ($40 to $45 per ton), and the 
labor is almost entirely noncompetitive with that for tree fruits. 
When the farm is not favorably situated for hauling beets it would 
’ pay the small orchardist to rent land (preferably bottom land) which 
is so situated, in order to supplement the balance of the farm. He 
would be handicapped by the distance of the rented land from the 
farmstead, but a few acres of beets or other crops suggested would be 
a profitable addition to the farm enterprises. Although the farming 
of land in widely scattered fields is not conducive to the best farm man- 
agement and should be discontinued when practicable, under some 
conditions (and within reasonable limits) such a system is preferable 
to the operation of a unit too small for profitable management. 
A valuable addition to the enterprises of the small farmer, whether 
orchardist or general operator, should be the growing of edible dry 
beans. The labor on this crop is practically the same as for snap 
beans, except in the harvesting of the dry crop, which usually occurs 
the last of August or early in September. The labor need not inter- 
fere seriously with any other crops but small fruits. The peach 
grower could make excellent use of this enterprise by irrigating later 
than usual and keeping the plants green enough to permit harvesting 
after the peaches are gathered. The benches around Provo have 
good air drainage and there would be but slight danger from early” 
frost. No labor conflict would occur with other tree fruits. When 
well cared for 25 to 30 bushels of beans per acre is a fair yield and 
$2.50 to $3 per bushel can generally be counted on for the crop. 
Overproduction can easily occur with beans, but the product can be 
stored indefinitely and is easily and safely shipped. So far as prac- 
ticable the small orchardist should supplement his orchard activities 
with stable enterprises yielding a high return per acre. In most in- 
stances he already is overburdened with crops giving uncertain re- 
turns. 
ON LARGE FARMS. 
The large fruit and general farms present an entirely different 
‘problem from that of the small farms. Usually there is enough 
land to keep the operators fairly busy. The large fruit growers, 
with a little over a third more labor, care for more than twice as 
much fruit, bearing and nonbearing, and four times as much land in 
general crops as is the case with the small orchardists. Their field 
crops virtually serve as “ fillers” for the periods when labor on the 
orchards is slack, but their labor income could be raised without 
much expense for other than harvest labor by the addition of limited 
areas of crops already mentioned. When the fruit harvest occupies 
most of the fall period, enterprises. which require much time then 
would not do, and this eliminates tomatoes. Beets could be grown 
