Beans 1515 
YIELD OF BEANS 
The yield of beans varies from five to thirty-five bushels to 
the acre, according to adaptability of soil, variety of beans and 
seasonal conditions. In the older bean growing sections both the 
acreage and yield per acre is much less than formerly. Last 
year in our best bean section there were more ten-bushel yields 
than twenty. Here again we “ don’t know beans,” for on these 
same fields and farms wheat and other crops yield as good, and in 
many instances better than formerly. Hundreds of acres of bot- 
tom land in the Genesee Valley that in former years could be 
counted on for big yields are now given over to grass and cattle, 
for beans are not profitable any more on these lands. New terri- 
tory for growing this crop is being tried out with more or less 
success. This one thing is certain: any farm product that brings 
in such good money in so short a time will eventually cause the 
removal or correction, to a great degree, of adverse conditions and 
influences that now handicap its progress. 
DISEASES OF BEANS 
The principal diseases affecting beans in field culture are 
anthracnose or pod spot, rust and blight, the first being the most 
destructive. These are fungous diseases and as yet the station 
experiments have not shown that any treatment of plant or seed 
will prove of practical usefulness in controlling the trouble. The 
seed from a pod that is free from disease, planted on ground that 
is not infected with the spores of disease left over from previous 
crops, will produce crops free from disease. Blight and rust we 
have long had to contend with. These are mostly confined to the 
foliage and are more disastrous to the crop in hot, moist seasons. 
No treatment of the seed has yet proved of any value in controll- 
ing these diseases. Pod selection is the only preventive. 
AFTER CROP CONDITION OF THE SOIL 
As we have referred to soil preparation and conditions pre- 
ceding the bean crop, we will now consider the aftermath. If 
the crop has been properly cultivated, what few weeds escaped 
destruction have been cut out by the bean harvester, and the land 
is in the best possible condition for wheat seeding after being gone 
