BEANS 
H. E. Cox, Grenzseo, N. Y. 
I have stated on previous occasions, 
when this subject has been given me to 
discuss, that, although I was raised and 
have always lived in the bean belt and 
have all my life raised more or less beans, 
still T can truthfully say that, “I do not 
know beans.” And I think this is true, 
also, of bean growers generally. 
In all our farming operations there is 
an element of chance, because of condi- 
tions over which we have no control. Bean 
growing is a gamble, but if we have land suitable for growing beans 
it is “ good business ”’ to take the gamble. 
In beans we have one of the most nutritious and highly con- 
centrated food products offered by the vegetable kingdom. Their 
value when cooked as a means of supplying protein in cattle ra- 
tions is justly recognized, but their value as human food is too 
great to allow of economical stock feeding excepting where, from 
weather damage at harvest time or other cause, they have become 
unfit for food simply by their appearance. Even these beans, 
when boiled in an arch kettle for the cows and pigs, appear appetiz- 
ing enough so that a real hungry man would not be injured either 
mentally or physically by making a meal from that same stew. 
They were used last winter on our Orchard Ridge Farm, cooked 
and fed with the ensilage, with excellent results. 
A SECTIONAL CROP 
Wheat, potatoes, hay, corn and alfalfa are grown quite gen- 
erally over the whole country. It is interesting to notice how 
readily conditions can be changed to suit the requirements of al- 
falfa. On the other hand, cotton, tobacco, sweet potatoes, beans, 
etc., are sectional crops; that is, they flourish to greatest perfec- 
tion under certain soil and climatic conditions supplied only 
by particular sections of the country. 
(1504] 
