164 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I915. 



beans will find a ready market. Further, if a large portion 

 of the growers will unite in the production of such Maine 

 standard types it will not be long until the fact is recognized 

 in the large markets. If it comes to be known that Maine is 

 producing a uniform standard type of Improved Yellow Eye 

 beans, for example, there will be a much greater demand for 

 Maine grown beans of this kind. 



Bean Production in Maine. 



Before discussing the standard types proposed it will be 

 worth while to consider briefly the relative importance of the 

 bean crop in this State. According to the last United States 

 census (1910) Maine ranked fifth among the states in the 

 production of dry edible beans. Some idea of what this means 

 may be gained from the following figures taken from the 

 Census Report (Vol. 5). The figures give the production in 

 1909 of the five largest bean producing states. 



Michigan 5,282,511 bus. 



California 3,328,218 " 



New York 1,681,506 " 



Wisconsin 154,570 " 



Maine 87,565 " 



From this table it is seen that although Maine occupies fifth 

 place it is very far below the remaining four states in absolute 

 production. We further learn from the Census Report that 

 the production of beans in Maine has decreased from 137,290 

 bushels in 1899 to 87,565 bushels in 1909. It is not our pur- 

 pose to analyze the causes of this decrease of over 36 per cent. 

 Our inquiries and observations however indicate that a consid- 

 erable portion of this decrease is due to inability to maintain 

 pure breeding strains. It has been the custom of many grow- 

 ers to plant several varieties in the same field. Our experi- 

 ments have shown that under such conditions many of the 

 beans will be cross-pollinated by the bumble-bees. The results 

 of this crossing are not visible the first year, but when such 

 seed is planted the second year it will break up into all sorts 

 of types. Even if no further crossing took place, it would 

 require several years selection for the grower to obtain pure 



