6 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
The pinto bean is about the same shape as the kidney bean, 
so well known as a garden variety. It is also about the same size 
as the kidney bean just mentioned. The pinto is buff-colored, is 
speckled with tan to brown spots and splashes. In many places in 
the southwest the pinto is called the Mexican tick bean. The name 
“pinto”, however, has become so well established that it should be 
universally used. 
While the pinto is the chief market bean, other beans are 
grown and frequently do well. The navies are grown and pro¬ 
duced to a small extent—both the pea bean and the little navy. For 
-garden purposes considerable quantities of kidney beans and 
“snaps” are grown. In most of our territory the season is too 
short for the proper development of limas; consequently, they do 
not figure in our bean problem to any extent. In parts of Colo¬ 
rado the Red Mexican or Pink Mexican, or Red Miner, is grown. 
This bean, however, is more extensively grown in New Mexico 
and Arizona and other points of the Southwest than in Colorado. 
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 
Beans will grow on almost any kind of soil, from adobes to 
light sandy loams. They do best, however, on warm, sandy loams 
and sandy silts. Preparation of the soil for beans should com¬ 
mence prior to the season in which the beans are grown and should 
take into consideration proper rotation and manuring. The soil 
should be prepared by plowing. Wherever fall plowing may be 
done without danger of serious fall blowing, the soil should be 
plowed in the fall. In the spring this land should be worked down 
into a seed bed, making as good a seed bed as would be made for 
beets or corn. Where spring plowing is done it should be done 
early. 
Beans respond to good preparation. Consequently enough at¬ 
tention should be paid to disking, harrowing and compacting the 
seed bed. In some sections listing has been attempted as the 
method of preparing the soil for bean planting. Fisting, however, 
is poor practice, except upon soils which cannot be safely plowed, 
because of their very strong tendency to blow. Where the land 
is prepared by listing, there is a tendency to slow up the develop¬ 
ment of the crop and delay maturity. In addition to these handi¬ 
caps, beans planted by the listing method are more difficult to 
harvest; especially if there is damp weather during the harvest 
there is likely to be much damage to the pods by coming in con¬ 
tact with the soil. The tendency to pick up adobe soil or stones 
is increased at harvesting time. If listing is done at all, it should 
